Run Fat Boy Run - The lazy mans guide to Ironman and Marathon training.

Abhainn wrote: »

Second this. Great, great result . Is long distance swimming the next thing?

Depends what you mean by long distance swimming I'd like at some stage to maybe do a 10km but I was surprised at how much time swim training can take up once the distances increase. I can only swim weekdays either before or after work or very quickly over lunch. A 4,000m session takes around 90mins when you factor in changing before and after and that doesn't suit me. Bring that up to a 6,000m session and you're into 2hr plus sessions - fitting one of them in means either a very early start for me or a late finish in Dublin before the long drive home.

Speaking of short lunchtime sessions did a quick 1,000m today including a 400m TT. Came in on 6.28 for the 400m, first time below 6.30. Started off way too fast with a 1.28 but faded badly over the third 100m. Didn't get my splits. There are still a few seconds to be had there as I had a few dodgy strokes that cost me some time. I need to pace better. 4 x 1.35 per 100m would give me a 6.20 and would be better than a fast first 100m and then 300m of holding on for dear life. I'd like to do a SC 400M TT at some stage for comparison.

Didn't bother with the 10km race yesterday event though I had a pass. Instead I banked some brownie points by spending 4hrs walking around the zoo instead. Have to say, carrying a 2 year old for 4hrs constitutes a tough training session in my book

Not much time today so a short swim at lunchtime. 100m wu / 100-200-300-200-100 off 1.50 per 100m / 100cd. Total 1100m. After my warmup the lifeguard asked me to get move from the 'medium' lane to the 'fast lane' :cool: (probably because every one else in the medium lane should have been in the slow lane :rolleyes:). Held an average pace of 1.40 per 100m for the session so happy with that. A nice short but testing workout. Should really throw a 400m in at the top of this session next time I do it to give a 1,600m pyramid.

I came across the Red Mist Set over the weekend. It's:
4x 400m at CSS pace + 6 sec /100m
3x 400m at CSS pace + 5 sec /100m
2x 400m at CSS pace + 4 sec /100m
1x 400m at CSS pace + 3 sec /100m
with 20-30 secs between sets.

Given that my CSS pace is around 1.39 per 100m and allowing 30secs between sets for me this would look like:
4x 400m off 7.30 in on 7.00
3x 400m off 7.26 in on 6.56
2x 400m off 7.22 in on 6.52
1x 400m off 7.18 in on 6.48

I think this might be a long term goal

Ah yes it's been a while. Headed off to Connemara with all the gang for a week and we had an absolute ball. A week of good weather in Connemara, a first for me, and I lived there for two years when doing field work as a postgrad!!! Is there a better place in the world than the West Of Ireland when the sun shines?Can there be a better place for the triathlete to holiday than Letterfrack? We stayed in a house 100m from the National Park with it's hilly trails for running, across the road was a sheltered bay that just asked to be swum in, and the coasts roads were a cyclists dream. Unfortunately I had the ear infection from hell and couldn't swim which really p!ssed me off, although I did manage three runs in the National Park up a big hill. For the first couple of days I was in a 4hr cycle of antibiotics, anti-inflamatries and pain killers. I never knew that your ear lobe could get so painful as to be sensitive to touch. Putting on goggles or a swim hat was not an option. I was gutted but what can you do?

Came home last Friday and headed up to Omagh for Tri The Lough on Saturday. Ended up spending over 10hrs in the car over 2 days which was a bit of a pain.

Tri The Lough Race Report
Ok a short race report. Very well organised race with a swim in a flat calm lake, two lap bike on closed roads and a nice undulating run around the lake to finish off.

At the start of the swim I couldn't get my earplug into my right ear, the one I had the infection in. I had to move it around a lot and when it eventually went in a large amount of crap that had been in my ear came flowing out (think yellow, runny and with a hint of blood). The lake was flat calm and the water almost completely black. I didn't enjoy the swim. I hadn't swam in almost two weeks and it showed. My stroke was all over the place and in particular I was dropping my left arm and shoulder. I was having OW wtf am I doing here moments the whole way around. That said the watch showed 12.35 when I stood up and 12.48 when I crossed the timing mat (72/298). I was aiming for sub 12.30 so cant be too disappointed with that especially when I know I was not stroking well.

T1 was a disaster, I couldn't find my bike. I hadn't being paying attention to where I was in transition and it showed - 1.43 (248/298).

Bike was a two lap affair on closed roads. I was overtaken by loads of riders in the first 5km as the faster guys in my wave came past - I was tempted to shout CRAP SWIMMER at them as they passed but I resisted. There was some drafting observed, primarily by the fast guys on the second lap when they came past me (they had started in the wave before) but I've seen worse. There were motorcycle marshals and whilst I didn't see any penalties in the results I do know they pulled a couple of riders up on the course and got them to spread out. Overall I was very slow. I have done no bike training this year, my last ride was Pikeman in early July, and it showed in this race - 37.43 (179/298).

T2 was another disaster, I couldn't find my socks which had been kicked around. I cant run without socks so had to find them - 1.29 (277/298).

I ran as hard as I could on the run, I was hoping to try and get close to a sub 20. I got a bad stitch after a km which stayed for another km or so. I overtook a few on the run and came in in a really really disappointing 21.36 (93/298). Wasn't wearing a Garmin so I hope the course was long.........

Overall 127th in 1.15.17 (last year when this race wasn't an NS one this time would have placed me just outside the top 20). I placed 22nd out of 42 in my AG. Not a great day out. Can't really expect better though given how much I've slacked of training recently. Illness may also have played a part.....

Dory Dory wrote: »

Hey griffin! Love Connemara - actually think I could live there it's so beautiful. And the trail at the National Park, Diamond Hill, is quite nice. A great resource with such a lovely surrounding.

I 'ran' the Diamond Hill loop on my last day and it was tough but a fabulous resource as you say. I find it hard to believe I lived in the area for so long and at that time couldn't appreciate how lucky I was with all of the great swim and run routes (I had other hobbies in those days, in fact every time I visit Leenane where I lived I start to worry when I see a teenager who looks a bit like a younger version of me )

Your ear infection. Ewww....the crap you had coming out of your ear sounds pretty nasty. And the tri....well....no worries. You had a decent swim and you probably got yourself a nice tshirt. Oh, and hopefully you had some fun.

A nice way to look at it and I did get a nice t-shirt and swim hat Cant really complain about the time given my lack of training. When you think I was delighted to break 14 mins for a 750m swim last April to get close to 12.30 last weekend is good progress. Sorry about grossing you out with the description of my ear, it's almost back to normal now.

Dory Dory wrote: »

Ooh, ooh, ooh.....DCM, DCM.
(we can share pints afterwards!!!)

I'm easily lead, sounds good to me

If it helps you make up your mind, I'd say go with the marathon, that'll mean I gain a place in the results for the swim.

Now now, easy on the sandbagging.

Upped the run mileage this week to see how the body would respond.
Sunday: 10km @ 4.56 min/km
Monday: 13km @ 5.18 min/km
Wednesday: 10km @ 5.12 min/km
Friday: 8km with 1km x 5 @ 5km race pace
Saturday: 21km @ 5.20 min/km
Total: 63kms

Not a bad week. Found the 21km LSR yesterday to be tough for the last few km even at such a slow pace - this was my longest run in approx. a year :eek: Legs felt great today and I was tempted to head out for a run but thought that a 70kms+ week after months of 45km weeks might be a bit much so held off.

I'll try and get another couple of decent weeks in and if I can then I think DCM will be a runner. I'll use 3.30 as the target time for my LSR's and PMP runs starting off but I may need to dial this back in a bit.

Three runs this week with DCM in mind:
Monday: 8km @ 5.30 pace
Tuesday: 10km @ 5.10 pace
Wednesday: 21km @ 5.40 pace - a very very hard lesson in how poor my run fitness is at the minute I held 5.20 pace easy enough for the first 16kms but the last 5km were tough and the last two were 7min pace. It was a very hot day and I didn't drink for the first 90mins so I'm hoping this was part of the problem. DCM may be a long day out.........again!!!!!

There will be little or no running this weekend when I do this event. It'll put all my fitness and run worries into perspective. I expect it will hurt a bit given my absence of bike training but this will be nothing compared to what this weekend will mean for Martin's family.

I had to pull out of Hook Or By Crook today as I have a 40th party the night before and I was never going to be in shape for it. In a fit of madness I entered the Lost Sheep today :eek: God knows why It means I wont be able to do the Glendalough swim and I had been looking forward to handing Kurt his ass in this We'll have to find another race (not DCM!!!).

Didn't get the hoped for 30km in over the weekend :rolleyes: Had planned to do it last night instead and I ended up in work till late so compromised with a 15km run. Plan was to push the pace a wee bit and aim for around 5.15 per KM; I ended up with 15km @ 5.06 pace, so a bit faster than I had hoped for. Legs felt good so not all bad. I'm still not going to enter DCM until close to the deadline on October 1st. By then I'll have a better understanding of how I'm set with hopefully at least one 20 miler under my belt.

Bags and bike packed and off to Kerry from work tomorrow. First time doing the Lost Sheep. Looking forward to it but nervous as I've done little or no swimming in August, although my usual lack of bike training improved slightly with the long ride last weekend. Plan is to push the swim, enjoy the view on the bike and suffer on the run. Last tri of the year so no point in finishing fresh. Three clubmates doing it as well so will be racing them, adds a bit of spice

Easy 8km today, 5.20 km pace - it hurt for some reason. Not a great sign for this weekend......