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Toiler's Constant

Kurt Godel

I'm starting a training log primarily to keep track of progress in swims and bike. In a previous life I did a bit of jogging, but stress injuries have meant I have to wave goodbye to running for the moment. So the focus will be on a bit of Triathlon, primarily to keep fit, and for enjoyment. I've never done one before, but recently bought a bike and swim goggles, and have entered the Valentia Sprint Tri. No goals for it at all, but to get round, learn a bit about what's entailed in a Tri, and have a smile on my face that evening.

Mon

2.5k swim

2k was done in one stretch, trying to focus on breathing, and it took about 40 minutes. Then 10 sets of (breast-stroke 25m, fast FC 25m), concentrating on pulling the arm under the body for maximum stroke.

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Slogger Jogger

I'll time you doing transition practice. We'll get you velcro runners.

I hit the roads today too on the bike and did this. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/175776353 The hill between 14 and 19k was a bit of a slog but the downhill was worth it. I don't have the time to do long cycles so I just have to try to incorporate the climbs in the short-ish ones I do.

Kurt Godel

Nice one, thats good going. Lots of decent training you can do on the bike, when you're injured for running. It's not all 4 hour spins to the bun shop in Enniskerry! Hills, like you're doing, are great, but all out speed and effort can be useful too. I'm starting to see benefits, as I'm tentatively starting running again.

Must get out with you some evening on the bike. PN says you're a savage for speed. There's another injured auld fella who will be burning rubber in a few weeks. One more, and we can pretend we're Kraftwerk.

Slogger Jogger

Cool. I made myself work a bit more too by hauling out the MTB for this which works out heavier on the hills. Also, since I changed off the slicks its less smooth to travel. On the plus side it has more options on the gears front

Kurt Godel

Tue 2k swim

There were a couple of lads joined me in my lane today, which usually means I have to fight through slow breaststrokes and lane-end gossip. Thankfully, they meant a bit of business, and were doing sets of 200m. I kept going for my intended kilometer, which meant I was pushed a bit pacewise at times, which was pretty useful.

The second kilometer was more relaxed, concentrating on form.

Kurt Godel

Tue evening 7k run 32:xx

Met up with some of the club lads for a run along the railway extension. They are on a high from their race, how well it was received, and some great individual performances from members. The run out was a bit leisurely at first, but the return had a bit more bite to it. I was hurting a bit with a couple of k from home, but the benefit of running with faster lads is its harder to give in. No sign of them slacking off, and the final kilometer was 3:50.

No real sign of knee trouble, but I'm still going to baby it for a while.

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Tue evening 7k run 32:xx

Met up with some of the club lads for a run along the railway extension. They are on a high from their race, how well it was received, and some great individual performances from members. The run out was a bit leisurely at first, but the return had a bit more bite to it. I was hurting a bit with a couple of k from home, but the benefit of running with faster lads is its harder to give in. No sign of them slacking off, and the final kilometer was 3:50.

No real sign of knee trouble, but I'm still going to baby it for a while.

That's a "bit", then 8 words, then a "bit", then 8 words, then a "bit". Sorry. Can't help that I focus on such irrelevant nonsense and symmetry...but it's almost palindrome-like.

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

That's a "bit", then 8 words, then a "bit", then 8 words, then a "bit". Sorry. Can't help that I focus on such irrelevant nonsense and symmetry...but it's almost palindrome-like.

Ha! I was just thinking, how lazy this log is grammatically, compared to its previous iteration. More effort needed indeeded. Don't have as much time as before though... will just have to run faster to get the wordplay in

TheRoadRunner

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Ha! I was just thinking, how lazy this log is grammatically, compared to its previous iteration.

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Tue 2k swim
The second kilometer was more relaxed, concentrating on form.

Seen as we are being pedantic

my old physics professor would kill you if he seen the metric metre being basterdised into the US equivalent

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Tue evening 7k run 32:xx
No real sign of knee trouble, but I'm still going to baby it for a while.

I was meant to ask you a while ago, do you have any exercises for strengthening the muscles around your knee? Friend of mine loves running in the hills but had awful problems a while back and surgeons wanted to operate. He decided against it and got a great program from a physio. He didn't run for 3 months but he hasn't looked back since. Running downhill would definitely expose any weakness especially if you weren't in top physical condition (i.e. a fat bastard) when doing so

Kurt Godel

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

I was meant to ask you a while ago, do you have any exercises for strengthening the muscles around your knee? Friend of mine loves running in the hills but had awful problems a while back and surgeons wanted to operate. He decided against it and got a great program from a physio. He didn't run for 3 months but he hasn't looked back since. Running downhill would definitely expose any weakness especially if you weren't in top physical condition (i.e. a fat bastard) when doing so

I tried doing specific knee strengthening crunches, only exacerbated the problem. Since then, I've limited running, and "built up" the leg muscles by swimming and cycling, which I think helped massively (knee always feels less pain free, and more flexible, after either). I've concluded that the cartilage has worn down, and that's whats causing the problem. It's common in hillrunning, especially as you say for the rotund type of gentleman/sex-god such as myself. I love my downhill's, best feeling in the world letting go fast down the side of a mountain. Your old physics professer could explain more precisely, but the normal reaction force to the ground on each footfall is a multiple of what it would be running on the flat, and that's all channelled through the knees.

So Dr. Selfdiagnose has started on a regime of limited running, only on the flat; build up the surrounding muscles by swimming and biking; and most usefully, taking 1500mg of glucosamine daily, to help replace the cartilage. Glucosamine has done the trick for a lot of other hill runners, and it seems to be moving me in the right direction. But no more downhills, not for some time yet. Watch your back RR :cool:

Kurt Godel

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

Seen as we are being pedantic my old physics professor would kill you if he seen the metric metre being basterdised into the US equivalent

That's "seeing as we are being pedantic". Which, to be pedantic, we weren't

Kurt Godel

^ Very sorry to see the RoadRunner leave Boards, he was one of the best posters on a consistant basis over the last few years. I know where you're coming from Dave, don't blame you at all, all the best. No-one ever rode a pacer balloon quite like you did

[IMG]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-W-ds4D0HI18/Tq_gLAB-vOI/AAAAAAAAAeo/6pRcb4it3D0/s800/Dave%2520F.jpg" height="800" width="600"[/IMG]

Kurt Godel

Thurs 3k run with strides, 15k bike

Easy with 70m strides on grass, followed by 15k easy on the bike.

Kurt Godel

Tue 1.75k swim

First kilometre (doesn't look right;)) was fast, and good effort, in about 16:xx. Next I did 5 sets of 50m hard, 50m easy (hard splits were 38,37,40,38,39). Losing a fair amount of time on the turns, I'd be interested to see what I could do in a straight 50m. 250m warm down.

I had the wetsuit on for the first open water swim of the year, at Clonea strand in Dungarvan. The water was freezing, but the suit was magic. Disappointed not to have been in Valentia, but in retrospect it was the right call. That 2.5 tarmac downhill run would be too much for the knees just right now. Although the Tri club have a team in the WWR, and need a vet for leg 4... that's worth fighting through the pain for, I might do this. Leg 4 is short enough, and on mostly soft and forgiving downhills.

PM 5k run, easy/steady

Knee felt ok, no major issues while running on soft forest trail.

Kurt Godel

Thurs AM 7k run, PM 15k run

Probably overdid things today, but what the hell, sometimes you have to go with the flow in life. A decent 7k run this morning, along the flat Railway Walk, had me running smoother than ever. Got an email later, a couple of the Rathfarnham guys were recce'ing leg 7, did I fancy some of that? Did I wha'!

One of the best things about the WWR is meeting other runners doing their recce's. I met Jase at Crossbridge, he had dropped Brian at Ironbridge to start, so we jogged the route in reverse. Had a great chat about the Relay as we ran, and I was happy to be not notice any knee pain. Walked any downhills, just in case. We got to the top gate just above the muddy lane that denotes the second hill section of this leg, and a couple of minutes later Brian came running up, thankfully at a very easy pace. Good run back, the grassy sections along here have some of the best views on the whole relay. Brilliant run, this is what its all about. Really looking forward to the Relay now, best day on the running calendar.

Krusty_Clown

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Really looking forward to the Relay now, best day on the running calendar.

Sorry to be missing it this year. Sniff. What leg are you doing and what team? Back on leg 7 for your sorrows?

Kurt Godel

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Sorry to be missing it this year. Sniff. What leg are you doing and what team? Back on leg 7 for your sorrows?

Leg 4 (oul fella's eying the chicks pre-start leg, wahoo!); Tinahely Tri club, team "Keep her lit". Looking forward to it- especially the thrill of following the race (the intention is to bike the remaining legs back to Shillelagh). I want to get to the Dying Cow before the leaders come through on leg 8, and then back to the pub in Shillelagh for the annual mash-up of friends old and new, watching the endgames and all the excitement that brings.

I'll raise a premium ale in your honour;)

Kurt Godel

Fri 1.8k swim

Legs were a bit stiff this morning, yesterday was further than I've gone in a while. Easy pace in the pool, helped.

Slogger Jogger

Must try to hook up at the Dying Cow so. Will be nice to raise a glass to the passing runners

Krusty_Clown

Damnit. Missed out on a friend's stag recently, where one of the stop-offs was the Dying Cow. I'm fated never to step over the threshold. Still hoping to run the WW over a couple of days this summer and will definitely make it a mandatory overnight stop. Good to see you running o'er hills and dales again.

Kurt Godel

Sun Coolboy Triathlon- 7k run, 15k bike, 600m obstacle course.

It's local, its to help pay for the local sports field, it had to be done. A poor turn out, which was probably a combination of keeping the advertising local, and the promised entrants waking up with killer Heino Cup and Champions league hangovers this morning. Having said that, it was very well marshalled, tea and sambos after, nice course, so hopefully word of mouth will get out that this is a good event, and next years turnout will be greater.

Run There were relay teams included, so the initial pace was around 3:40 min/km. After 500m I checked the garmin, and let them go. Sure enough, once the drag hill section came around, I was picking off lads, with only one "full Triathlon" about 30 secs ahead at half way. As the loop headed back, I got the gap down to about 10 secs, and so it stayed until the end.

T1 Getting better. I had the shoes on the bike, took about 40 secs to glug water, run bike to start, and mount (without any issues). My foe stayed in road runners, so made about 30 secs on me here.

Bike You know, I'm not too bad on the bike. Head down and kept the motion going on the big ring. Legs hurt, just kept them hurting enough, all the way around. The relay bike leggers were targets now, and I just kept on picking them off. I was still in second for the full course, on the stretches I could see a gap of about 500m. Head down again, up the effort a bit, and lets see if I can catch him. With 4k to go, I zoomed past, and obviously woke him from a slumber, as he attacked on the next hill and took the lead again. Gap was about 5 seconds as we passed my cheering kids (not too many races that go right by my house!). Kept the cadence until the end, still only a few seconds between us as we entered transition.

T2 My nemesis just racked his bike and ran, I lost about 20 seconds changing my shoes. Pity, as I had no idea how long was the obstacle course, or what it would consist of.

Obstacle Course As it transpired, this was a lap of a field, with some bales of hay to be crossed, nets crawled under, etc. I should have just kicked off the bike, and ran barefoot, would have at least given the crowd a race to cheer then. Anyway, lesson learned, elastic laces will be my next Tri purchase, this is all about learning. Jelly legs off the bike, thats a really weird feeling. Through the tires, under the net, over the bales, under the sheet, traverse the see-saw beam, It's A Knockout!!! Home in 2nd by about 20 secs.

What did I learn: My running is good, I trust my pacing when runners are going crazy all around (Garmin died after 2k so was running on feel). Reeled in the runners I expected to, kept the effort levels decent, with the right amount in reserve for the bike. Happy with the effort on the bike, need to take corners faster, and climb better, but all in all its ok. I'd say a turbo trainer could be put to good use. Transition is getting better, its all about practice now, and elastic laces. Next up, WWR leg 4, then maybe Tri-Athy.

Dory Dory

Well done! And good to see you were able to mount without any issues.

(serious fun, I bet this was!)

Krusty_Clown

If you'd just kept the running shoes on from start to finish, you'd have been 20 seconds clear of first place. Great practice. Nicely done on the silver.

Kurt Godel

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

If you'd just kept the running shoes on from start to finish, you'd have been 20 seconds clear of first place. Great practice. Nicely done on the silver.

Not quite. The cleats give you an advantage (its quicker to cycle in cleats than road shoes), so its not as cut and dried as +/- the leads. However, if I had known (or had bothered to find out) what the third "discipline" consisted of, I could have kicked off the bike, and given the lad a race barefoot.

All good sport though! This morning I was wrecked, bit of a cold after spending the day in the company of 14 7-9 year old cubs, wasn't in the mood to do the tri; now I feel great! Happy the knee seemed to play ball, too. Hurts a bit now, but no issues on the course.

Slogger Jogger

Nice work Paul. You are really coming on. After the Tinahely duathlon it was nice to get a completion under the belt and to be at the leading edge of things was a nice bonus that you'll learn from.

Good to see Coolboy reinventing the Triathlon. Sure they could have swam in the Derry river

That 'tri' might suit a non swimmer like me some time. Mind you I'm a non runner at the moment too so that wouldn't work. You could design your own triathlon.. drink a glass of fine red wine, do a tricky maths problem and finish with a nice mountain downhill.

Kurt Godel

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Nice work Paul. You are really coming on. After the Tinahely duathlon it was nice to get a completion under the belt and to be at the leading edge of things was a nice bonus that you'll learn from.

You'll be back running soon enough. Keep the faith, don't rush things. I thought I'd never run another kilometer, but kept up the swimming and biking; that's what stood to me today.

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Good to see Coolboy reinventing the Triathlon. Sure they could have swam in the Derry river That 'tri' might suit a non swimmer like me some time. Mind you I'm a non runner at the moment too so that wouldn't work. You could design your own triathlon.. drink a glass of fine red wine, do a tricky maths problem and finish with a nice mountain downhill.

One of the surrealist painters had a quote I always liked: "Exercise in the morning, paint in the afternoon, drink at night"

Kurt Godel

Mon 35k bike

Met up with PN to help shake out the old stiff legs. A fair bit of climbing on this route, along back roads. Almost came a cropper going uphill when my gears seized (same problem, highest gear needs adjustment), and my feet just shot out of the cleats in time to stop a face/gravel mash.

Kurt Godel

Tue 5k run

Aborted a longer, faster, version, as I was sweating like a pig, heartrate was way up. I have a cold and sore throat, nothing too bad, hope to shake it by the Relay- but running hard tonight was doing no favours.

Kurt Godel

Sat WWRelay leg 4

May as well be honest, I ran this very hungover, after indulging in an odious amount of world beers last night. I could lie and say that I'm following a new Krusty training schedule, but truth is I am exhausted with exam-cramming stress, so when the hot weather and friends came around, I grabbed the opportunity to relax by the tinsled, cool, long neck. Reckon it cost me a minute or so on the day.

Anyway, I was nervous at the start, it was very hot before 10am. My runner comes in, get tagged by her, and off up the road hill. Before long I'm panting; its bloody hot. Got passed by a speedster here, just keep plugging away. Up and over Paddock hill, and I'm moving at a decent clip. Coming down is different though, my gammy knees mean I can't run down as fast as I would usually. Another lad passes me here, travelling at a more comfortable downhill speed. Cross the road and begin the slog up Brockagh, I'm really struggling with breathing here, every gasp is a hot fill of anti-refreshment. Another lad goes by (exercise in attrition, this log), and I up the pace to slower than him, but as fast as I can go.

I know there's a big downhill coming up, and I'm dreading it. Over the "summit" of this leg, time to let go. Brakes come off, I trust the knees, and travel downwards at a speed greater than I ever have before. It's hugely painful, but I'm going so fast I need to grap overhead branches to limit the descent. This is what I love about running; unfortunately its whats killing my knees. I was bonked at the flat, tried moving my legs faster, very hard. Made it to the lag end, and collapsed. This run was very painful, and hard, and I left nothing out there. That's the limit of what I can do on little running- guess I came in 51 or 52 mins, when I should be doing 45 fit. C'est la vie, I'm glad to have been part of the WWR, great day all round.

Kurt Godel

Two days after the relay, DOMS set in bad, much worse than I've had after any marathon. Every movement was an exercise in pain, and it wasn't until Wed or Thurs that it started to ease. Oddly enough, the knee feels in pretty good shape, and I had expected it to be wrecked after running downhill

Fri 3.8k swim, 75 mins

I have an important statistics exam that I've been cramming for, so every brain activity is tainted by Bernoulli probability models, and 95% confidence intervals, and I needed some down time to wash them out a bit. With luck, there were few at the pool, and I went straight into one long Ultra Distance swim. No stopping, no dropping of effort, just plain old fashioned stick at it. Some leg cramps at half way were dealt with by just dragging the feet along a few lengths, and I was still strong in the upper body at the end, kept the form together well.

griffin100

Kurt Godel wrote: »

I have an important statistics exam that I've been cramming for, so every brain activity is tainted by Bernoulli probability models, and 95% confidence intervals, and I needed some down time to wash them out a bit.

If you're looking to take your mind off stats I have a probability assignment that's overdue I could let you have a go at