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Reach for the sky...
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so not entirely sure on totals for december
the start of the month was going well but then i had to have a tooth out and take a couple of days, and its not healing properly so cant swim, and then christmas and travelling across the country and pints here there and everywhere so the last 2-2 1/2 weeks of december were pretty poor, last week wasnt bad, starting to get things going again , but easy enough to do when you take swimming out of the equation,
anyway totals for 2019
from memory
running was just over 800km,
cycling was around 4000km
swimming was 80 something
today marks the official start of the celtic warrior 2020 training plan, apart from the break in december because of tooth, i have been building away since november anyway, if anything the first few weeks of the plan are less than ive been doing lately but im going to stick at it as its prescribed and see where it gets me ..0 -
quick update whilst work is quiet
2 weeks done and into the third week
managing to get everything done without impacting too much on the family
will be changing from 2 s and c classes to 1 from next week so that will give me a proper day off every week , but i think ive found a timetable that works pretty well for getting everything done ..
made the mistake this weekend of trying to get some of next weekend done as well , as im away for the weekend, overdid it a bit and had to cut yesterdays run short, legs were heavy and it was better to cut it and get the rest of this week done than just slog it out and end up wrecked by midweek ..
better half doing a kilometre in circa 4 degree water at the weekend :eek: itl be 20 something minutes, give me an ironman any day0 -
Jan and some of feb 2020
six weeks in
average week has been 3 runs ,2 swims and 3 bikes
plus 2 strength sessions, is coming out at about 11 hours a week
at the moment , started at about 9 hours in january
still all working out okay time and effort wise , had to cut a few bits
short this week, just logistics more than anything, so itl be
easy enough to fix,
bought a massive fan for turbo and treadmill sessions and i can
see it making a huge difference , will avoid turbo as much as possible
once the weather improves, i have the option of cycling in and out of work
but at the moment there are 2 midweek sessions that need to be done on it
and the fan will make a difference to the quality that gets done
swimming is improving, following the sessions in don finks book and although they are all short efforts, my speed doing them has really improved,
doing most of the running in zone 2, and not having any great issue with it other than boredom, can feel that the strength work is making a difference to my posture and form,
so basically all going well so far, looking ahead i cant see any major problems with sticking with the plan, main thing is long bikes and runs get longer, midweek nothing changes too much, getting the 3rd swim in will be the hardest thing, theres one hour on a sunday that might work, but itl involve getting up really early to get the weekends run / bike done0 -
so basically all going well so far, looking ahead i cant see any major problems with sticking with the plan
hows that for tempting fate .. 4 out of the last 8 nights sleep have been really poor with saturday night a complete disaster, awake all night, despite taking sedative ,
ran on sunday anyway, out of stubbornness more than anything, i wasnt going to be beaten, that was stupid, worst run in years, nausea, disorientated , heart rate through the roof, had to walk at one stage, this was at 6 min km pace.. so nothing tough,
anyway monday was a day off , so ran tuesday as normal to get back into things but tuesday night was another washout, about 4 hours, so i cut wednesdays turbo session , and todays, supposed to swim and run tomorrow, likely to cut one of them , and then will see how the weekend falls, a lot going on over the weekend anyway, 2.45 cycle and 1.15 run scheduled, if i can break the cycle sleep wise , last night was good , then i'll try to get back on track,even if its a matter of doing 3/4 sessions to get going again , if not then i'll have to have a full break for a while and things will have to be re-assessed..
possibly back down to a half iron,
hopefully its just a flare up and i can get it under control and get back to normal0 -
well got over that little flare up, think i got to the pool once or twice and then the country shut down, and rightly so,
so no swimming for last 3 weeks i think and none likely for a month ? maybe more, whether or not it turns out that there are any races on this year , with no swimming done for the better part of 2 months or more it wouldnt be a runner for me to be having a crack at an iron distance swim having missed that amount of swimming, in fact id need to have squeezed the maximum out of as many sessions as possible in the first place,
anyway there are more important things happening in the world,
treating this year as an extended base training session, and if any local running races get going later in the summer, or club stuff, then il join in with that and enjoy it ..
still following the ironman plan, just minus the swimming, subbing in weights for swimming , in the build phase now so intensity isnt too bad, obviously cycling is all turbo, doing 3 hours on a turbo is a new form of torture to me, but got through it all the same .. just reading elsewhere in the tri forum that intensity should be kept low to keep the stress off the immune system, so il probably dial back a little bit..
running thankfully i have a 4k loop in front of the house all within the 2k radius so thats not too bad,
generally its been 3 rides, and 3 runs and 3 weights sessions ( 30-40 mins ) so far, working from home, doing schoolteacher and housekeeper, but managing to keep it on the go, and its a good escape from the madness of social media lately,
everybody stay safe and well, and hopefully none of us or our families will get seriously sick..0 -
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15 weeks in, so halfway through the 30 weeks, feeling a bit fried with constant loops and out and backs within the 2km zone, trying to decide on zwift or 2 hours of up and down the road, whether to get fried daily doing zwift races and ironman vr and strava challenges, getting progressively more annoyed about not swimming ( who thought that would ever happen ) and realising that there will be no race.. or at least not an iron distance, so whats the point in putting the body and mind through the grind, other than proving to myself that i can
because i was feeling a bit edgy and overcooked , last thursday i decided to take off until tuesday, i got to tuesday and and couldnt be bothered either, some time yesterday i decided to just forget about iron distance training altogether, so stop following the plan, run when i want, cycle when i want and just chill out.. take the pressure off and get back to enjoying it..
after a while i'll have to try to identify a target , i dont work with not having one, there are some local half marathons and marathons here in end october which might happen, after that theres the same again in february, so i could have a crack at a decent time in them, ive a 1.33 half time that i havent really gotten close to but i still think its beatable, thatl take a bit of work, hopefully the 2km thing will be relaxed a bit soon.
have started to take the kids out on the roads on their bikes, i think its a good time to start teaching them some road manners, roads are quiet round me so we can do a lot but still learn what to do when getting passed , where to be on the road etc, without it being a big deal, and im enjoying getting out with them,
on the lookout for a cross bike for 11 year old and 9 year old, if anyone has one / hears of one , let me know0 -
another month passed, not much to report
tri club has been doing virtual duathlons, 3 so far, 2 sprints and and olympic, first one i did flat out, 2nd and 3rd just cruised around and did them as training,
theres also been the boards a/r sections runs, the 5k and the 1 mile, i gave the 5k a good lash, marginally downhill straight line course, and came in at 19.59 , which is the first time ive seen a sub 20 in over a year i think, the mile i overestimated my abilities, i thought i had more speed, i went for 5.50 but came out at 6.04, it was a hot day for it , but course was more or less flat, one dead turn prob cost a second or 2 but i think my top speed is about 6 minute miles and no more.. if i could put 3 of them together id be very happy..
i've started following a marathon plan, im not sure that there will be a marathon to do when its finished but its just something to put a bit of structure on the week , 5 days a week running, on the 3rd week now and it seems to be going ok, with a bit of luck in aug / sept/ oct therel be a half or 3/4 or some kind of race to take part in, if not il have a good base for when there is
have been in the lake locally doing a little bit, 600m and 1000m, just taking it easy but it feels like the pace is there but the endurance isnt , not really overly bothered with doing too much swimming , but the better half im sure will be going twice or three times a week , especially after next monday so i'm going to be around it anyway , just a matter of throwing the wetsuit in the car and doing a bit when i feel like it0 -
so where was i ..
started marathon block, got 5 weeks in, was just burn out, it was a different type of plan than i have worked on before, high mileage and high effort, 5 days a week with 3 tough runs and 2 slow long runs, i thought i had a decent base done with the ironman training but this particular plan was probably the wrong one for me at the moment,
i had some decent runs, enjoyable half marathon distance at decent pace, but after 5 weeks i was completely frazzled, adding in the odd charity virtual race probably didnt help , hard 10ks 5ks and mile efforts probably added to the burn out, so after the 5 weeks i took a step back and changed to a half marathon plan with less of an emphasis on times, and left the weekend runs good and long,
that worked well, and endurance was building up nicely, did a decent pace 30k run and a 20 the same weekend,
so feeling strong and with a decent weather forecast i decided to have a crack at the bangor trail , which is a 30 something kilometre rough off road trail in north mayo, that has a mix of surfaces from rough to really rough and a lot of up and down, through some of the most remote parts of the country,
long story short , 7km and just over an hour in i turned my ankle badly and ended up spending 2 hours walking out slowly and painfully,
it blew up like a balloon and i thought it would be months before i was running again but it actually went back to normal surprisingly quickly ,
3 weeks off running, did a decent amount of cycling, couple of 100k spins, and in the last week im back running, very slowly, and feeling very heavy but itl come back
clew bay half marathon in 6 weeks is the target, not a race for a pb unless your in great shape so if it goes ahead hopefully its a nice day and we can tip around and enjoy it0 -
another month done
not a lot to report really
id have to look at strava to be exact but i know there was plenty of cycling done, kids were in my parents for a week towards the end of august and i think i got somewhere close to 400km done that week alone , including a good spin from newport down the greenway into achill, round by keel and back out, was a bit over 100 in the end ,
since then the amount of spins have gone down but the distance has gone up , so have done 100k spin almost every weekend,
was up in gweedore direction for almost a week with the bike, got 4 spins in , nothing hugely long distance but made up for lack of distance with the amount of hills and steep hills at that
and did the mayo mtb extreme audax 100km last weekend, having been on the mountain bike about 4 times this year , turned out to be a nice spin, about 70 - 30 road to off road, but mostly local back roads at that, and lots of hills , was starting to wane a bit around 80k and was properly hanging off the bike by the end, but enjoyed it and the craic around it all the same did the whole thing with no back brakes on the bike, something i discovered on the way down the first hill, there was only one real oh **** moment but i got away with it thank god
have followed the half marathon plan pretty much for the month, had to move things around or change runs from hard to easy but more or less got through it
pace has been coming back a bit lately , and speed endurance , which is good as it had all gotten a bit ploddy there for a while,
clew bay half is at the weekend , hard to know what to expect from it, its a tough tough course , and generally has a good headwind on a big section of it, best plan is probably to start carefully and see what happens ,
there are at least 2 more half marathons on the way and one on a fast course that would probably be worth keeping my powder dry for
also considering the gravel grinder up in fermanagh, have to get the brakes fixed for that one though
the better half swam that omeath to carlingford swim , was it 7k odd, anyway did really well but was dissapointed that she didnt do it in skins,
so a few weeks later did 10k in the lake in skins, 5 x 2k loops, lovely calm day, flat water , loads of support, some others were in doing it in wetsuits for a charity thing
and then last weekend ,saturday ,proceeded to swim 8k across part of lough conn in skins in crappy conditions ,
and sunday swam the moy swim , 2.5k , still in bits from the day before.. and did really well in it .. mental flow in the river , she was doing 45 second 100s at one stage, finished with a 1.13 100 average :eek:0 -
2 races lately clew bay half in louisburgh 3 weeks ago
went ok, wasnt really much wind which is a rarity out there ,theres normally a strong headwind over the first 7k which also is almost all uphill, up and down but more up than down and after 7k youve gained a lot of elevation, this year no headwind really and we were much quicker going out that direction, with the result that i had to keep holding back on the pace, as i was running unsustainably fast for me, got to 7 and turned and then 8 ish and turned again, the course trends downhill for maybe 5 or 6k and with the breeze behind me now, the pace went right up, down close to 4 min kms at times, enjoyed it but i knew the worst was to come, from 14 to 16 isnt bad really its probably the flattest part of the course 2 more turns and we were running back uphill into a cross / headwind, not amazingly strong but strong enough at this point to make things sting a bit, had to really slow down just to keep going at stages, about halfway up the last hill i realised it was the last hill and found a bit to push to the top and kick downhill, finished up in 1.41 and a bit .. wouldve liked 1.40 and a bit but it was alway just going to be a race to see where i was / am and 1.40 is kind of i'm in ok shape pace, not amazing but have a base to work with ..
2 weeks later enniscrone half
another hilly course although probably not quite as bad as louisburg but a horrible day weather wise, full on gale blowing , thankfully didnt rain until we were well into it , first 6k was gradually downhill with a handfull of little stinger hills thrown in, but wind behind us, went through 5k in just under 22 mins, wasnt worried about pace, just wanted to see what was in the legs, from 6 to 10 ish was uphill sheltered thank god but just a long drag up, 10 to 13 or 14 was flat / draggy into the gale, heavy going, hard to keep any pace, working so hard that at any bit of shelter the pace would fly up but then 200 yards later itd be way down again, 14 to 17 was away from the wind, still going up but more sheltered thank god, hip flexor starting to ache a bit but in general still going ok, 17 on we were turning into the wind a bit again and it literaly was flat out effort wise just to keep moving, at one stage running downhill i had to work to get down to 5 min kms , again at stages in the last km it was very similar , max effort just to keep moving... ended up a few seconds over 1.40 happier with that considering the day that was in it, points towards faster times on flatter courses and nicer days ..
in terms of training the last 2-3 weeks have been hit and miss, was doing a bike to school thing with local club for a week, so some very easy cycling done but no time to do anything else, but had a bit of a bad sleep flare up so cut back on things for a bit to get that under control , and then started back weightlifting / strength stuff just last week so a bit all over the place really0 -
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6th oct to 11th nov 2020
with the 2nd lockdown starting more or less in the middle of this month there isnt really a whole lot to report
training has been more or less the same as ever
3 runs , 2 or 3 bikes, normally 2 into work and one decent one at the weekend, i think ive done 100k spin 3 out of 4 weekends , and then 50 or 60 during the week on the bike
running probably 2 5ks and a 10k
obviously no swimming
we bought a kayak a sit on top, the wife swims a lot outdoors in skins both sea and lake but mostly lake as its handy to us, water temp is on the chilly side , so the kayak is handy for safety , but the real reason behind the purchase is to train for the coast to coast, which is in may 2021, if it happens,
have done 3 hour long kayaks so far, will need to work on technique in the new year but for now its just about hours and getting time in,
with weather starting to deteriorate and darkness coming earlier a lot of the midweek stuff is now going to have to be treadmill and turbo which i hate, looking for a second hand tv or maybe a projector to try to motivate myself a bit more,0 -
so to wrap up for 2020
there wasnt too much different really to the end of november
a few 3 and 4 hour bike rides and the usual running and a bit
of kayaking whilst the better half was swimming
december
i had the intention of getting to 4000 km cycling and 1500 km running by the end of the year , which meant 380km cycling and 180 running, the sanity clause challenge sorted me for running mileage, 6km a day for the month at a minimum and it would work out at 1500 ,
more treadmill runs than i wouldve liked and far more runs on the same stretch of road than i wanted either, but still a couple of nice trail runs and runs in the woods as well, it was 90 percent easy running but by the end of it i was cruising at 4.40 kms as an easy pace, which was a nice bonus
early enough on i realised that i wasnt going to get the cycling done as well so i just let it slide,
so the year turned out at 3620km cycling, 1500 and a bit running, and 37km swimming from earlier in the year , and a little bit of kayaking
dunno really what 2021 plans are, coast to coast in may is the idea, dont really know if its going ahead, thats 240km of cycling, 25k kayaking, and a trail marathon in 24 hours, part of me feels that il be well able for it without really ramping up training specifically, other than a focus on kayaking technique , and part of me thinks im nowhere near fit enough for it , anyway if and when entries open il be entering and sure we will see what happens from there
happy new year to all,0 -
january 21
january has been more or less following a pattern of 3-4 runs 3 rides ( zwift ) and an odd kayak here and there where the conditions allowed,
runs have mostly been tuesday easy runs, thursday longer, faster runs, and saturday long slow runs, with 2 half marathons in there, and an odd wednesday or friday i have gone for a trot just to get out of the house
wednesdays fridays and sundays have been zwift, 2 sessions with the club , having club mates on the screen and chat on discord really helps these pass and encourages a bit more effort too.. zwift hasnt really worked for me up to this point but the group sessions are really helping
fridays has generally been my own session on zwift
and have done 3 decent kayaks 2 8ks and a 10k, although there will most likely be no race this year, that takes the pressure off the need to kayak but it is very enjoyable
147km ran , 380 cycled, 26 kayaked0 -
so 2 months since last update
checking strava
to keep it simple feb was 27 hours, 510 kilometres, 40 activities
zwift twice most weeks, 3 times some weeks, 2 1/2 hours at the weekends
running mostly 3 times a week,
the kayathlon virtual series was on for 5 or 6 weeks from mid feb so that provided one good hard session every weekend that i wouldnt have done otherwise
started off with a just sub 21 min 5k on a tough enough bumpy woodland course
there was a 7k, a 10k, couple of duathlons where the cycling went well,
few other bits and a duathlon to wind it up at the end, so for the 5k run of the last duathlon i decided to have a decent crack at it, having noticed things improving as the weeks went on, ran sub 20, 19.45 , without putting heart rate above 160 for the whole run, few years since i got sub-20, so its nice to get back there , and do it reasonably comfortably
march was also 27 hours, 590 kilometres , 39 activities ( consistent if nothing else )
taking mostly the same format as february , except with runs starting to get longer
havent done a whole lot of kayaking, the lake is outside the 5k and we have heard of people getting fined, so have been waiting until this week,
into april now, have gone back to doing a weekly and hopefully twice weekly strength workout , deadlifts squats etc ,
also doing some more specific run workouts , these will take the place of the race efforts i was doing in feb march and will hopefully stop me from doing just easy mileage,
have the a/r forums 5k time trial to do in 2 weeks and id like to at least match the 19.45 from a few weeks ago,
may bank holiday il run a half marathon too, as its the weekend the river moy half is normally on,
with the 5k limit gone, and weather improving the plan would be to do a bit more hilly trail running to build some strength, some nice places around but all about half hour drive away, and to get out on the kayak a bit more , and of course to get out on the road on the bike
hopefully the mid week zwift spins will keep going, as much for the craic as the structure it provides0 -
end of the month, monday is always a day off so as good a time as any to update
edit forgot april
april was 33 hours , 552 km, without looking further into it on strava, id safely say it was 150k ish running and 400 k cycling or thereabouts
may was 42 hours , broken into 14 running, 157 km , with the usual breakdown
tuesday wednesday thurs fri sat running with sat being the long one, which is generally anything from 15k up to 25k , the other days being 5k minimum up to 10k , tuesdays this month have been club track sessions, which has been good from a social point of view as well as building a bit of speed
so then 28 hours on the bike, the turbos have stopped pretty much except where time or other commitments make them unavoidable, 662km done, 3 good weekend spins, 100, 110 and 125,
did an hour on the kayak as well
not much else going on, in terms of whats on the horizon, club duathlons restart shortly, potential for a long training day type club event , and keeping an eye out to see whats happening with running races in the summer, couple of cycling things on the go, mayo 100k mountain bike event, and probably a 200 audax, although there is a 300k thats interesting me as well ,0 -
ok so june and july
strava says june was 37 hours , 476 km and 36 activities
within that , weights / gym has started back, track sessions on mondays are back on, did a level 2 kayaking course, club duathlons have been on, and did 150km bike spin to see how it would go,
didnt eat enough the day before, the morning for breakfast or on the spin itself and bonked badly towards the end, but learnt a few lessons i guess,
july , 41 hours, 795 km and 27 activities
the big rise in mileage comes from the wild mayo ultra 300km "race" , which was last weekend, 24th july, entered this just on a bit of a whim, through boredom and curiosity as much as anything else, started and 7.03am and finished just after 11pm, almost 13 hours on the bike and 16 hours overall, the heat was a killer for me, about halfway through my body felt fine, legs were fine, but my head was just buzzing from the heat, got a cold shower and stuffed some frozen peas down the back of my neck and i was sorted from there on, 2 killers of climbs on achill slowed things up, but got through and no major hangover from it, did track session and weights on monday as normal ,
other than that its been quiet enough month, club duathlons on, which i have pb'ed in the 3 races ive been in, gotten down from well over 55 to 51-0 and shouldve been at 50 minutes but for crap transitions , but its nice to know there is some speed there ( relatively )
usual feeling after a big event , i dont really know where the next month or 2 are going to go, looking round for a relatively flat half marathon just to keep me running, and possibly the gravel event in westport in september , depending on a few other things, but could do with something on before the end of the summer to keep things ticking over ,
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august and september
things slowly fell away in august and september , probably no surprise with the hangover after the mayo 300, things werent too bad
for a week or 2 but then i havent really been on the bike since that, running increased and swimming made a tentative comeback
august was disturbed by holidays of course, where last year i brought the bike to donegal, this year i couldnt really be bothered, even to
get back my k.o.m. that i got last summer and has only recently been taken ,
most of the month was spent running and trying to have a decent crack at a local 5k that has a fast-ish course, coming up to it i felt in fairly good running shape , but in the end the lack of racing caught me out, what i thought i could do and what i could do in reality were very different, took off far too hard ( didnt think so at the time ) and couldnt really get my legs turning over after that, was fairly solid throughout but had no real speed, was kind of hoping for sub 19 but in the end just about scraped the sub 20, couple of weeks later ran a pb at ballina parkrun, a tough course that to me is worth 30-45 seconds on any normal 5k course, so i think with a few more races a decent time is there for the taking, but not sub 19, i think im getting to old for that, unless i buy a pair of super shoes in a moment of weakness
after that the focus through september was a half marathon at the end of the month and another to be held in 2 weeks, so longer weekend runs, and a good few really hilly trail runs which i really enjoyed getting back to, the course in enniscrone is tough and very open so the weather can play a part, for last years race it was lashing rain and had ferocious headwinds that were impossible to run at any speed into, this year was much calmer and almost a perfect day for running, after spending all last week sick with a lingering head cold i actually tried to give away my entry but thankfully no one was interested and i started to feel better on saturday , after a quick test run at park run i was fairly sure i could get through it and it would at least be a decent training run. after telling some people i knew before the start that id be taking it handy enough and seeing how it went, i took off at 4.15 pace down the hill in enniscrone gaining on the front pack and making deals to myself that id slow down once we hit the hills and fall back into the mid pack, but the legs were good , after a week off , and i made it up to third place at about 7k, held onto it as the course gradually and then much less gradually went up to 16k, but got passed by the guy i had previously passed for third on the last tough hill and then he ran the last 5k a minute quicker than i did, there was never much hope of catching him , but got through a tough course in 1.35.50, which is not a pb but is the quickest time for a long time , and gives me a bit of courage for the more or less flat course in 2 weeks time ,
august 29 hours 30 activities
september 19 hours 24 activities ( one full week off sick, must be the first time in years )
not going to spend the time looking into the breakdown but itl be 70 % running, some kayaking and swimming and very little cycling
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god things have gone quiet around here, 3 months since i put anything up and theres still only one post ahead of me..
not going to go into the minutiae of everything over 3 months though,
rough outline , did the clogher half marathon , very flat course, ran 1.31 , very happy with that, a course worth going back to next year
got the kids started on going into parkrun, one is a natural runner and one isnt but neither loves it, either way at the moment its non negotiable .. if they pick up some other activity then they can drop parkrun, as long as all they are excercising is their thumbs then they can stick with one run a week,
ran a local 10k , after a week of being under the weather, wasnt covid, but a strong cold, it cleared the day before and the better half came and we had a crack at it, i had a fairly soft p.b. and i managed to take a couple of minutes off it, but i had actualy gone through 10k almost a minute faster in the last half marathon, it turned out to be a very tough race, i was floored by 1km in and a lot of deals were made to get to 10k ..
december kind of petered out then , we had a club duathlon on the 28th but we were organising so didnt get to race it, hit running total early enough, 1000 miles, let the cycling slip, and then ate all round me for 2 weeks, so theres a kilo or 3 to get rid of but a few weeks of consistency will get rid of that ..
totals for the year 1610 km ran,
3900 km cycled
20 odd km swam
110 km kayaked
2022 .. going to have a proper crack at training for celtic warrior in august , got about 4 months done in 2020, didnt think it would go ahead with covid and changed to the coast to coast, in the end coast to coast was called off and celtic warrior went ahead, but with lockdown and pools closed it wouldnt have worked for me anyway,
have started the initial base block, which is way less than i would do weekly but im going to up the swimming end to 3 days a week, thankfully i can make lunchtime swims every day pretty much, havent swam properly in 18 months so really need to get a good month or 2 in and then see where i am, the rest im not really worried about, im not looking to break any particular time , if i can come out of the swim in ok shape, tap through the bike in 7 hours and then see what happens on the run.. il be ok with that,
as usual there will be other bits and pieces here and there , august is too far away to keep me focused, il enter the dcm lottery tomorrow, not holding out much hope, but if it doesnt come out then il enter some other marathon in sept / oct
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so Celtic Warrior full / iron distance 2022
training from January to August went very well, hit 90 percent of sessions , missed very few, very few niggles, 30 weeks, 9 sessions a week, id say i got 260 out of 270 done ,
swim 160km, bike 3700 ish, run 990 ish , since january
i decided not to go with a coach, so i followed the joe friel be iron fit plan , i wanted to own this one myself, if i fucked it up i could only blame myself, if it went well that belonged to me too, if i was going again i probably would consider a coach and use their knowledge to improve things,
actual race
swim 1.22 .. delighted , 5 laps, i think it was 4 x 16 and 1 x 18 and that was just the extra 100m making up the swim back in, so very steady throughout,
bike 6.50.. punctured so that cost 10-15 minutes, bike course changed from previous years, whilst it was flatter , roads were narrow, poor enough surfaces, not great in places for getting much momentum, i had thought 6.30 ish would be good, and taking away the puncture it was around that, so kind of happy enough, i think i could do a similar course with better roads in better weather ( it pissed rain all day ) under 6.
run . 4.11 happy with that too, the plan was always to run easy for 5k walk through transition / water station for 2-3 minutes and repeat, despite feeling very good at the start of the run, i stuck with that plan and it worked out great, around the middle of the run i felt like pushing on to make sure it was sub 4 but i thought better of it and stuck with the plan.
overall 12.50
probably ate too much before / early on in the race, had a small bit of stomach bother early in the bike but got over that and had no other real stomach problems after,
the weather caught me out a bit, i hadnt expected it to be raining solidly for the whole day, so i ended up wearing what is essentially a winter cycling jacket, which in fairness kept me warm but was also a bit of a parachute, i had only brought it along to use as a jacket for walking about in around the campsite before and after , so i guess i was lucky to have it at all,
tt bars on my bike are very low , i knew this and was kind of used to it, but if i was going again id get a new set that can be risen, mine cant and i didnt think it warranted buying a new set, neck and shoulders were fairly sore by end of bike, but didnt last ,
lastly, there was very low entries, 3 in my race, 37 in the half, 50 odd in the olympic i think, but basically there was no real company on the course, once the half and olympic came on obviously there was more bikes on the course but they either shot past way too fast and were gone into the distance, or i was the one shooting past, so there wasnt any psychological benefit of being on the course with groups of people , on the plus side, i was first out of the 3,
if i did another one i think it would be feasible to go under 12 hours , with company on a similar course, better weather etc , but not sure if i want to commit to another block of training just yet
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My first time venturing into this part of the forum as a triathlon newbie and it didn’t take long to figure out who this is! Colm here btw!
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Yeah I thought that was you colm from the thread you started on getting coached.
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so officially you won an iron distance race. nice one:)
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Dublin Marathon 2022
Preparation
i had 13 weeks from the end of Celtic warrior ironman
from memory i had 2 full weeks off and had a crack at starting at week 2 of a basic enough 12 week plan, running 4 days a week, but it was another 2 weeks before i was really able for it , did weeks 2 and 3 but just ticked the boxes, it was poor enough running
so from week 4 to 8 or 9 went ok, hit all the runs , 4 a week, mostly on pace - ish , cant remember if it was 8 or 9 but we got covid in the house, in terms of being sick I was only unwell for a day really, but 2 long runs got missed , both weekends, the first because it was the one day i was actually sick, the second was shortened because aerobically it was a bit of a struggle,
weeks 9 and 10 were fine, did a couple of half marathons both went well, the second one i did 10k before hand to make it into one of the long runs and i was struggling by the end, surprisingly, but i didnt think a lot of it, it was a hilly course, particularly the end of it ,
last week then i was in the doc with a bit of a bug- a uti, but very mild, nothing major, bit of a discussion as to whether we would see did it run its course before the weekend or take antibiotics to speed up it going, not a fan of taking tablets if they arent needed so we elected to let it run its course and see what happened, he did advise me to bring money for a taxi though,
race- race weekend etc
drove up friday to meath, drove up to expo early sat morning was there at 9.30, surprised by how many were there already, expo itself was quite good, but as ive said before , i could do without it, id hand over 20 quid to have my stuff posted down to me, buy merch online etc..
up at 6.20 sunday morning, dropped at merrion square by 7.30, bit of a **** attack when i discovered that gels- salt etc were still in brothers car but he hadnt gone far and came back around the block with them, in through bag drop etc very quickly, down into the green wave and waiting around for a good while, right up at the front of the wave , 3.30 pacers then appeared on the road in front of the barriers with a load of people with them, not really sure how that happened, wasnt too worried about it anyway, was doing my own pacing,
race,
first 5k @5.10 average, which was the plan, sweating like a lunatic from about 2k which was strange for me, went looking for salt tablets and realised they were left in drop bag, wasnt overly panicked, would just drink plenty, next 10k grand , no major hassle , coming from 16 to 19 was a bit of a drag psychologically but nothing physical just seemed to drag, up through halfway in 1.44 odd , no problems really apart from hamstring threatening to cramp occasionally but it was holding ok,
22 to 30 odd is nice for running, flat or downhill, i think its deceptive though, drags you into a false sense of how you are, a friend was at 32k with oranges , when i hit him i was on for 3.35 ish, but the wheels were coming off, pace was dropping, it had gone 5 to 5.05 to 5.10 and was now heading out to 5.30 and beyond, i could see the 3.30 something wasnt going to be achievable and to be honest i didnt really give a f*ck what the time was going to be after that, i knew it would be well under 4.01 which was previous pb ,
i had already walked the 25 and 30k water stations , just for 30 seconds to drink properly and get a little reset to go again, i did this in the ironman and it worked very well, at the 35 and 40 i walked for 2 mins, funnily enough i managed to get up most of the hills in the last section apart from a small stretch of the ramp for the flyover, but running pace was at 5.45 ish and then adding in walking breaks was killing it, 37 to the end is nice and runnable to but just wasnt able to get any flow to it, walked at the rds for a minute , proper cramp was starting to set in, got shuffling again then got taken up with the increased pace that everyone was going at coming to the last mile, so was running 5.15 pace but started to get like random hot flashes and waves of nausea almost, and was looking at runners lying on the ground getting medical help, so i thought it was wiser to let it go back to a shuffle and wobbled over the line in 3.46.. something ..
cramped immediately after stopping, calfs , quads , shins, everything, thankfully it didnt last long, shuffled through to bag drop, sat down opposite and changed and got some salt tablets off another runner and that helped a lot, walked out to fitzwilliam place exit and cramped again , locked up all over the place, had to sit down and stretch a few things out, after that was ok, shuffled up to stephens green to meet the parents and gather up and head back to meath , not especially stiff since, drove home yesterday, expected to be like a board trying to get out of the car afterwards but was relatively alright, no problems with stairs or getting around,
post mortem
am i happy, i think most of us here are only ever happy if we have over achieved, if things have really gone our way and we have miraculously done better than expected, so no, not happy with it, dont know if im even satisfied or content with it , but i do know there is a lot more time there to squeeze out and figuring that out is interesting to me,
there is obviously something not going right / being done right when i can run a half marathon comfortably at 1.33 in may, go through remaining iron man running and then into a marathon plan and be so far away from what should be a comfortable 3.30..
most likely not enough mileage, and not enough at marathon pace, and that is the bones of it, not fit enough to run 5 min kms for 42.2 km , probably wouldve had an easier day to head out with 5.40 / 5.45 as the plan from the start and still run the same time in the end
leaving salt tablets in drop bag by accident didnt help but i dont think it wouldve got me more than a minute anyway
probably shouldve taken the antibiotics for the 4 days and flushed out whatever was left of the infection.. but again small fry really, a minute or 2
shouldnt have ran/ raced the 2 half marathons during the training block, but it helps me get out the door, do most of my training on my own so an odd race here and there helps keep things going, going at them as hard as i did, 1.35 for enniscrone which is a hilly fecker and 1.44 for ballycastle after doing 10k before and again hilly probably wasnt wise , but i enjoyed them at the time,
but
i like the course, its not that hilly lads, ive done halfs with close to the same elevation, the support on the course is epic, very very few stretches that didnt have someone on the course, the support from other runners is great, and i think that there is a lot to take off that time yet
at the end of the day it is a hobby, its not life or death its for enjoyment and i did enjoy most of it,
so i will probably be back ..
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