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

Connemara Marathon Race Report

When I started this training plan 18 weeks ago I put a time of 3.30hrs for the Conn marathon out there as a target. I had based this time on two things:
- a 5km TT that had according to McMillan suggested such a time was possible
- in my head sub 3.30 is a decent (if not spectacular) time for the marathon and it was a time I'd be glad to hit, and it would also make up for the shameful performance that was DCM 2011 when I took almost 4.30hrs to get around.

I used the P&D 18 week / 55 mile plan and for the first time ever I stuck almost exactly to a training plan. At the start I never expected to get anywhere near 3.30 in Conn but as time passed and the training went well I started to think it might be on. A 1.34 HM time gave me some confidence. Conn is perhaps not the best race to be targeting a marathon PB in but I had paid for this place in 2011 and deferred it so it was a case of use it or loose it.

I was asked last week what time I was targeting. I answered that sub 3.30 would be fantastic, but more realistically sub 3.35 was more likely and I'd be happy with this. However I wanted sub 3.30 (and top 100 placing if possible) and in my head I knew I had a fighting chance.

Race morning was lovely and sunny and dry. The temperature started to rise quite early on and I knew it was going to be a hot one. After an hour of sunbathing the hooter went and we were off. The plan was 7.45-50 pace first 13 miles; don't loose too much time over miles 14 and 15; try and get back to 8 min pace for miles 17-22; survive the hell of the west and see how it went from there until the end.

I started close to the front of the field and the first few miles were glorious- no wind, sunny, fantastic scenery, gorgeous french girl running alongside me......what more could you want? Breathing was very easy and pace felt very conformable. My HR was somewhat elevated but I didn't worry too much at this stage. I was targeting a 165ish HR and assumed I'd relax into it.
Miles 1-5 - 7.52/7.40/7.40/7.43/7.49
HR 167 / 172 / 170 / 175 / 175

After 5 miles or so field began to thin out. There were a few lumps in the road but nothing major. At mile 7 there was a bit of a hill and here I dropped the 3-4 runners that had been with me for a couple of miles but I was still breathing very easily and feeling comfortable, despite a still elevated HR. No need to worry I thought, the 4 miles or so into Lenanne are all downhill, my HR will recover and drop here. No such luck, as I crested the hill I was hit in the face with a really strong breeze which I had to run into until just after mile 13. Despite lowering the perceived effort in an attempt to get the HR down on the downhill it wouldn't budge. In fact it started to rise, on a downhill!! My average HR for mile 12 which was essentially flat was 196. I decided at this point to ignore HR, I could have slowed and allowed a recovery of sorts but I'd never get close to sub 3.30 if I did that. Despite the elevated HR I was feeling great and breathing very easy. I hit Lenanne and the 13.1 marker in approx. 1.41.45.
Miles 6-13 - 7.34 / 7.52 / 7.39 / 7.53 / 7.36 / 7.35 / 7.48 / 7.50
HR - 175 / 178 / 177 / 179 / 179 / 182 / 196 / 179

Coming out of Lenanne the two mile climb beckoned. I slowed the pace a bit on the hill and concentrated on not going too hard. The hill wasn't that bad in the end, I got up it easy enough and at the top caught the tail end of the half marathon.
Miles 14-15 - 8.04 / 8.17
HR - 184 / 191

Catching the end of the half marathon field was a great buzz and I concentrated and weaving my way through the back markers. This helped pass the time and it was nice to have some people on the course after 13 miles plus of running with no more than 3 or 4 others for company. At this stage I was feeling strangely comfortable and still breathing easy. My HR was going mad but I was ignoring it. The miles ticked off. At 18 miles I started to worry about how good I felt, I've never been this happy at this stage of a marathon before. I did start to slow a bit but I still felt great.
Miles 16 - 20 - 7.35 / 7.40 / 7.53 / 8.11 / 8.02
HR - 182 / 181 / 188 / 184 / 186

At miles 20 I started to feel the pace. The legs started to fight back and it was time to start using all of the mental tricks to keep them going. I told them to shut up, I screamed at them in my mind that we were going to get a sub 3.30, that we'd been training for 18 weeks for this, that I wasn't going to stop in front of all of these half marathoners. This seemed to work.......for a while......
Miles 21-22 - 8.04 / 8.34
HR - 189 / 185

As I approached Maam and the turn off for the HOTW and Maam Cross I began to suffer badly. I started to get dizzy, I got pins and needles in my hands (never had that before) and I started to get a severe thirst. As we turned the corner and went over the bridge I got a drink and I then stopped to walk whilst I drank it......and couldn't get the legs to start running again. I screamed at them, reasoned with them, threatened them but at this stage my legs told my brain to fcuk off and stopped responding. I shuffled through mile 23 and then in mile 24 things went from bad to worse when even a shuffle was too much. Mile 24 was a long slow walk where I spent almost the entire time gulping down water (the organisers deserve credit for the extra water stations at this part of the course). I had a brief recovery over mile 25 but again started to suffer in mile 26 and even the sight of the finish line failed to get me going.
Miles 23-26.35 - 10.44 / 12.10 / 8.09 / 9.17 / 2.48 (.35 miles)

I crossed the line in 3.36.06 for 26.35 miles according to the Garmin (confirmation of chip time is pending) for 105th place out of 600+ marathon finishers. AHR was 176,

I still don't know if I'm happy with that time. If you'd offered me that time 3-4 months ago I'd have bitten your hand off but now....I don't know. I'm angry with myself for fading so badly on the HOTW. I'd visualized running up that hill for the last 18 weeks but failed so badly on the day. Hindsight allows me to say I should've pushed harder on the hill, should have lived with the pain but it wasn't to be on the day.

What went wrong? Two signification issues, perhaps related. My HR was way too high for the entire race. I ran over 20 miles with my HR at half marathon race levels. The day was also much hotter than I expected and I suspect I was somewhat dehydrated by the time I got to 22 miles. I had drunk at every water station but probably not enough. I drank about 8-10 x 250ml bottles over the last 3-4 miles so I think that tells its own story. Nutrition wise i had no issues, a gel at 6, 12, 18 and 21 miles worked well.

I'm determined to go sub 3.30 and perhaps a bit faster as I know its's there for the taking. I need a flatter course, and to be honest some more 20 mile plus runs in training. I'll take my time picking my next marathon, but not too long, don't want to loose the edge (or regain the belly for that matter).

Time to get back on the bike now, the Tri An Mhi HIM awaits...............

So it's been a week since Conn and after some moping about following the failure to hit my A goal I got back in the saddle. Three runs this week of 4,4 and 7 miles. All super slow at 9min + mile pace and very low HR. Legs recovered very quickly with no niggles (does that mean I didn't push hard enough?) and they felt ok during the runs although after the 7 mile run they felt very fatigued afterwards.

I need to make a decision re. my next event. I'm very confident that sub 3.30 is there for the taking on the right course (Waterford perhaps) but I don't know if another marathon too soon would be too hard on the body. I've been injury free since 2010 and I'd like to keep it that way so dropping back the run miles for a couple of months might be a good idea. I've an entry for the Tri and Mhi HIM in late May so I think I'll use this to recover by lowering run mileage and upping my non existence cycling and swimming. After this event I think I'll make a decision on my next race, either another marathon with a 3.20-30 target pace or an IM with a sub 12hr target (lofty targets indeed )

Donelson wrote: »

Holy ****! that's some ticker you've got there

Ha, when you look at those numbers I suppose it's no surprise I blew up.

I'm hoping to have some lab tests repeated soon and to get an indication of where my LT HR is currently and my HR zones and this will help for future training.

On a different topic I finally got my leg over last night after a gap of 8 months. It's been so long I'd nearly forgotten how to stay on, what to wear and how hard to go. I managed to get back into the swing of things quickly enough but did forget to lube up so have some soreness today and my back is pretty stiff. 28.2 kms averaging 27kph (it took me a while to work out how to switch the Garmin from run mode to cycling mode :rolleyes:). Very windy and cold. I overestimated how warm it was and ended up arriving back home with two blocks of ice for feet. Two things jumped out at me, my cycling shorts are about an inch shorter than my running shorts so I have a lovely farmers tan on my legs that doesn't quite reach the end of my cycling shorts giving rise to two funny looking white rings on my legs, and its time to get this stuff out again.

I also did 6 miles at 7.50 pace yesterday so my first double day in a long long time.

Can't believe I haven't updated in so long......

Last week was quite a good week, I actually got over 10hrs without too much difficulty on the time management side, doing most of my running in work is a big help. When the 50m pool opens things will get even easier I hope.

Runs x 4: 47kms
Bike x 3: 159kms
Swim x 1: 600m

I managed to get 3 bikes in last week. My first ride was included a 1km climb with an average 10% gradient. I love that hill but perhaps doing it was a bit too much given my lack of bike training and since then I've had a sore knee. It doesn't stop me training but is annoying, lesson learned - keep the 10% gradient hills until I trained some more. I also did a 'long' flattish bike on Saturday of of 82 kms / 3hrs. I did suffer on this one though. The first 41 km was easy and then I turned back for home into the wind.....I've never been so feckin cold in my life. The wind increased and the temperature started to drop as it got later in the evening (it was 4 degrees according to the car when I got home) and I had no gloves or shoe covers on. I lost all feeling in my extremities and the last 10km were tortuous as I bonked at the same time (water and one gel for a 3hr ride, not a great idea with my current fitness levels). Averaged 27kph which I'm happy with. Overall not a bad week by my recent standards.

I also had my first proper swim in months, all of 600m. I went to Glenalbyn for the only public swim of the day (10am) and hoped it wouldn't be too busy. The place was feckin mental with breast-stroking pensioners with no concept of pool etiquette. I had planned to do a 1,000m straight swim but got out after 600m. Felt good but was a bit slower than usual pace.

This weekend is the Tri An Mhi HIM. I had just about persuaded myself to do it despite having done no real swim training in months,minimal bike training in the last 8 months (<300kms), but at least having done a reasonable amount of run training this year (900km). I want to see if I can go 1.45ish off the bike for a HM. However I've a chesty cough and cold at the minute so I think I'm going to have knock it on the head, running up the stairs at the minute leaves be breathless (even more so than normal ). I can register tonight in B2R so I;ll do that, get my T shirt and see how I feel on Saturday morning.

catweazle wrote: »

I assume you will be doing this, fair play! You will get through the swim nice and quick as it will be so cold you will want to get out asap. Awful time of year to be 35-40 minutes in lakewater but needs must!

Well I've prepared for it .........wetsuit and trisuit tried on for first time since last August........legs denuded of some thick growth.......gels bought........registration completed.......wife warned that she won't see me home until late Saturday.........

That said still feeling a bit ropey, but that could be due to the epic hangover I have today and not my cold

To do this I have to get up at 5am tomorrow morning, that'll be the hardest bit I think. Any sign of wind or rain and I'm turning back over to sleep.

Got a chance to try out the new 50m pool in UCD today - a whole 50m lane to myself is a new experience for me. I've never swam in a 50m before and boy is it long 99% of my swimming for the last 4 years has been in a 20m pool, there's a big difference between swimming 100m with one turn versus 100m with 4 turns. You certainly work much harder in the 50m pool, I never realised how much the frequent turns in the shorter pool allow you to rest. I think anyone who trains in a 50m pool has an advantage over those who use a smaller pool. Hopefully the fact that this pool is on my doorstep will encourage me to get back swimming regularly, it really is a magnificent facility and I think the plan is to always have two 50m lanes open at all times.

Did some 5km race pace intervals this evening and I swear I almost died in the heat. I held a good pace for the repeats (avg. 4 min km pace for 600m repeats) but I almost died every time I came to a hill. We won't wish the good weather away just yet though. Hopefully it'll last long enough for me to get some biking in, at the moment work and home life is too busy to allow anything other than running.

Need to start updating this a bit ore frequently

Still plugging away with lots of running but zero bike and swim.

A couple of 50 mile run weeks has be back in reasonable condition I think. I did an 18 mile LSR last weekend with the first 12 miles at 8.40 pace and the last 6 at 7.45 pace (average 8.20 pace overall) and was very very comfortable. Did some 1k intervals last week as held all 5 intervals at between 3.55-4.05 km pace which is very good for me. Yesterday I did a 19 mile run with the first 17 miles at average 7.52 pace / AHR 160 plus two miles cool down. Very pleased with that but did have to work hard over miles 13-17. The plan this week is to again aim for around 50 miles but to try for a 22 mile LSR this weekend at around 8.20 pace. If I can hold this pace for 22 miles then I'll consider doing the Waterford Marathon off a two week taper and trying to stick with the 3.30 pacers (although I won't have done many long runs in the lead up - 18, 19 and hopefully 22 miles only).

I'm currently having the serious chat with herself regarding an IM this year. Choices are Hardman or Ireman 226. The former is the preferred choice I think. However I don't know if its an option really with the way the time pressures from work and family life currently are. If I do Hardman that's about 11 weeks to get my cycling and swimming up to scratch, not ideal either. I can start swimming much more regularly in the next week or two (3-4 times per week if needed) but the bike is the killer. At a minimum I know that I need to be doing two rides a week of approx. 60kms plus a long ride with some hills to be comfortable on the IM bike. At the minute that seems very difficult. I'll make a decision by the end of the week either way.

Izoard wrote: »

I think it would be good to see if you could complete an IM course with no swim or bike training..sure it only starts on the run anyways...:)

Speaking of runs - I presume the Groomsport run still has the crazy mix of road, beach, trail and rocks. Tough enough for a HIM, but the full?

That sounds like a very sensible approach, it's about as scientific as my IM training approach to date anyway

Yeah Groomsport is still that strange on road / off road mix on the run. It's the 'flat' bike that appeals to me, after IMUK and the ROK last year a flat 180km would be nice although I've seen posts that say the bike route in Groomsport is dangerous. The fact that the full distance race can't seem to increase it's numbers despite being on the go for a few years may say a lot!

Izoard wrote: »

Good man - by 2015, you'll be knocking out IMs off the back of a round of golf as training...

Ha. I'm sure there comes a point when the minimal training approach comes back to bite you in the ass as you crawl your way around the IM marathon Not sure when that is though, I know someone who did Challenge Barca off no long runs, a couple of 100km bikes and a couple of short swims a week - about 5-6hrs per week - and he did it well within the cutoff.

Thursday
Run: 8 miles @ 8.20 pace / 155bpm. Nice gentle run. Interesting to compare this run to the same run on the same route this time last year. 155bpm last year gave me 9 min miles; this year it gives me 8.20 miles. A sign of the increased run fitness.....even if for most people 155bpm is a high heart rate....for me it's my run all day HR.

Friday
Quick dip for my 3rd swim of the week. A quick look at my 2011 log tells me it's been almost a exactly a year since I last did 3 swims in a week. Nice and gentle today - 100 x 10 off 2.30 coming in on 2.08-10. Starting to get back some feel for the water and also getting used to the 50m pool. I read somewhere that I should be 6 seconds or so slower on a long course 100m than a short course one (Dory? Interested?). If that's the case then I'm happy with these times. At this stage I'm happy to do shorter repeats off a long interval time so that I can get back to having a feel for the water before I start trying to push on for the longer distances. I hope to do the Cloughhead Swim that JB likes in late July which is a 2.5km OW sea swim I think. This should give me some indication of swim ability before taking on the 3.8km :rolleyes:

Tuesday Part 2
6 mile run. Strange strange run. Was trying to keep the HR down and run at a recovery pace. Ended up with a HR that was all over the shop and was far too high for the effort being put in. Maybe a sign if tiredness from the mornings swim. Glad to get the run over with.

Wednesday
Swim - a quick dip to swim 1,000m straight. Came in on 23.20 which is pants. This time last year I was swimming 100m repeats off 2.00 coming in on 1.50. I've really lost a great deal of speed, and I didn't have much to begin with. However Mloc has contacted me about doing some session with Mr Tango so watch this space........

Bike - a nice short ride on what was a lovely evening. 36kms / 1.26hrs / 25kph avg speed. Plan was to try and so as much climbing as possible in the 90mins or so of time that I had available and I managed to get 409m in.

Started off with 10km hard push on a long drag with a speed sapping road surface in a big gear / 5km downhill recovery / 1.5km @ average gradient 7% (with a couple of hundred meters at over 10%) with recovery on downhill / 0.5km @ average gradient 4% with recovery on downhill / 1.5km @ average gradient 7% with recovery on downhill / hard 15km home. A nice session with some sore legs at the end.

The surface on the 1.5km climb is diabolical with potholes and lumps and bumps and house entrances ever few meters so I normally descend this hill very carefully with a handful of rear break for the bad bits. On my second descent I lost control of the speed and ended up having to come off the breaks and negotiate my way around the pot holes and piles of gravel at over 60kph - squeaky bum time I can tell you. I know a couple of lads who have done over 75kph on this descent :eek:

Plan for tonight is a 12-13 mile run with some miles at HM race pace if I can manage it.

Thursday
Run A quick 6 mile run at lunchtime, pushed it on a bit - avg. 7.40 mile pace.

Friday
Swim 2,500m swim. 500 wu / 300-200-100 off 2.15 per 100m / 300 drills / 300-200-100 off 3.25 per 100m / 200 drills / 100 x 3 cd

Doing 50m lengths one armed takes some getting used to

Run 10 miles. Avg pace 8.31 / mile. Had real trouble keeping the HR down despite my best efforts. It settled after 3-4 miles.

Saturday
Run 20 miles LSR. Plan was to run this off HR keeping HR around 150-155 bpm. Again I had trouble keeping the HR down. Ended up doing 20 miles @ avg pace 8.31 but with an avg HR of 160. Was comfortable enough until the late teens - a reflection of my lack of longer runs recently I think.

Sunday
Bike Legs were sore from Saturday's 20 miler so decided to avoid the hills on this one and do a flat course. Ended up doing 105kms / avg speed 28kph. I suffered a lot on this ride, very strong side and head winds made for a tough ride with over 50kms riding into headwinds. I was glad to get home.

Weekly Totals for 7 weeks to Hardman
Swim 6,000m / 2hrs
Bike 122kms / 4.35hrs
Run 42 miles / 5.50hrs
Total 12.25hrs

Not a bad week. Plan for this week is to try and get to Cloughhead next Saturday for the Round The Head 2.5km swim (this will be a big indicator of swim fitness) - weather dependent obviously; 4 runs with at least two over 10 miles and a drop back to circa. 16 miles for the LSR; bike 5hrs or so on my long bike the weekend.

Bray Aquathon Race Report (aka where the fcuk can I buy a banana in Bray)

So given I've entered a 2.5km OW swim this weekend I thought it might be a good idea to get an OW swim in beforehand given that I haven't pulled on a wetsuit in anger since last August. Hence I find myself in Bray last night after work for the Bray Aquathon, my first 'multi-sport' race in 11 months. I arrived nice and early to make sure I got an entry as I hadn't pre-registered. €20 incl. a TI ODL so not bad value.

I last did one of these races in 2009 when transition was open and the swim buoys were about the size of a human head and the same colour as the swim hats we were given. This time around transition is fenced off which makes me happy as this is Bray after all and the little swim buoys and replaced by highly visible enormous Wicklow Tri Club ones - excellent.

So post registration I headed off to find a shop. I'd forgotten to pick up some bananas and wanted to get 1 or 2 to nibble on pre race as I hadn't eaten since lunch. Que 45mins of traipsing around Bray seafront and environs in torrential rain trying to find a shop that sold a solitary feckin banana. Bucket and spades.....no problems; candyfloss.......check (I admit I was tempted); burger and chips.......every where; fruit of any sort.......no sign. I eventually found a solitary anemic runt of an apple in the shop beside the Dart station which I bought more out of pity for the apple than for its nutritional value. In the end my pre race snack consisted of a can of coke and a bar of chocolate (I should have bought the candyfloss).

Its getting close to start time and miraculously the rain stops. Start is delayed due to traffic issues on the approach to Bray but eventually we get to the briefing. Nice and simple and straightforward. Swim along the beach, exit and do two laps of the promenade including two runs up Bray Head - all really well signed and marshaled. As with all race briefings the lack of technical knowledge of the TI official is plain for all to see, there really should be a module on the TI technical delegate course on how to use a loudhailer, specially how to turn it on and use it properly.

Swim had been increased from 750m to 900m as we were swimming with the current and otherwise the swim would be over too quick - a nice value for money touch. You could spot the newbies as they exchanged panicked looks when this was announced and when they saw how well spaced the buoys were, a feeling I remember well from my early tri days when I was such a poor swimmer that I avoided deep water swim starts where I had to swim to the start line using up my limited swim fitness.

Walking down to the swim start and I'm trying to remember if it's acceptable to wee in your wetsuit before you get into the water. Swim starts and I begin out wide and mid way down the pack. Bit of rough stuff to the first buoy and then we turn to swim parallel to the beach. Big buoys make sighting easy. Find myself veering off course but sighting sorts this. Feels like I'm stroking ok but I'm not pushing hard at all. Point of exercise is OW practice so I'm not worried about speed. Still I'm a bit disappointed to get out in exactly 15mins. Normally that would be ok for 900m but we supposedly had a following tide so I though I might have been faster, but then again like I said I was taking my time.

Transition took just under two minutes as I wrestled off the wetsuit and tried to get my soaking wet socks on. Again I took my time.

Off onto the run and I set off at a nice relaxed pace. Running without the Garmin meant I couldn't gauge my pace so kept it comfortable. First time up Bray Head was hard but the second time I knew what to expect and it felt easier. Pushed hard on the last km running with a lad from Wicklow Tri Club who beat me in the sprint, but at this stage my lace had opened and I was more concerned with not tripping up than beating him. Run completed in a few seconds under 20mins according to my watch. However run is just shy of 5km, I think around 4.7km but I'm still happy with that run time as I didn't really push hard at all.

Overall 37mins plus a couple of secs so pretty much exactly half way down the field of 72. Happy with that as run was better than expected and I was comfortable in the swim making me feel more confident about the 2.5km OW swim on Saturday.

Great feed laid on by Wicklow Tri Club afterwards with loads of sambos and soup. Had a quick bite to eat and went back to my car to find that I'd left the headlights on and my battery was flat :mad: Luckily enough another competitor was parked behind me and he kindly jump started me so wasn't delayed by long - many many thanks to you if you're reading this.

Well done to Wicklow Tri Club for a really well run race - well managed, well marshaled and well signposted with a great feed afterwards. Great value for money. I'd recommend it to everyone, but remember to bring your own bananas.

Weekly Totals For Six Weeks To Hardman
Swim 5,400m (with 3,400m of OW) / 1.45hrs
Run 9 miles / 1.10hrs
Bike 0 kms / 45mins VO2 test
Total 3.40hrs

What a disaster of a week. Other than swimming this is one to forget. Did the Around The Head Swim on Saturday morning and had planned to do a 2hr LSR on Saturday evening but it was gone 3pm when I got home on Saturday and their were jobs to do and kids to entertain. Only managed to get a 6 mile run in very late on Saturday evening. Sunday was to be a long (5hr) bike - up nice and early, fed and ready to go when the kids all got up, looked at the nice sunny day and asked expectantly where are we off to today Dad.......bike clothes back off and a day trip to the National Stud. Great day out. Home, fall asleep on couch, wake up at 6pm, try and muster up the energy for some form of a bike ride, decide to eat chocolate instead......oh dear. Hardman is going to be a long long long day out this year I think. At least I got some decent swimming in this week including a straigh 2,000m in the pool, an 900m OW sea swim and a 2.5km OW sea swim.

Around The Head 2.5km OW Swim Race Report
Long drive to Clogherhead on Saturday morning to do this swim. I needed to get a long OW swim of some sort in to see if doing the full 3.8km in a few weeks was feasible and this was my chosen test. Have to say I was nervous enough about this, I've never done further than a 2km OW sea swim and that was 2 years ago (Escape From Ireland).

Arrive nice and early, register, eat some breakfast and drive to finish area to drop car off. Get a lift back to start from organisers. Nice of them to ferry us all to the start. Not a big crowd, according to results 52 started the swim. Sea was calm enough looking with a bit of a breeze. Briefing done and off to start line.

Waiting to go and I cant get my goggles clear - they're covered in vaseline, oh well, I cant see anything without my glasses anyway. I start at the back and out wide. First part of swim was to a headland where we turned and headed along the coast. This was the hardest part. Despite it being a calm day I got the lard beat out of me by a really rough section of choppy waves, I got a good few hard slaps into the face by some waves here and almost had my goggles knocked off. My stroke went to pot here and I felt like I was dogie paddling. This went on for a while and I lost sight of all other swimmers. I had a guy in a red canoe inside of me and he stayed there for almost the rest of the race until the final turn back to shore. This made me think that I must be at the back of the field and he was shepparding me round - we had been told that safety canoes would do this for the weaker swimmers. I almost decided to give up at this stage, I didn't want to be last and in addition I was getting the head beat of me by the waves (I think I was a bit too close to shore so I got a rougher section of water than the wider swimmers). Once around the first headland the sea calmed and I got on with trying to swim with some form of decent technique. I turned to breath at one stage and when I put my face back into the water it was inches away from a fcukin huge brown jellyfish - I early chocked as I tried to roll away and avoid swimming over him. Managed to avoid him and seen no more. Sighting was not going too badly, helped by the red canoe inside of me. After a while I realised I could see the final turning point to shore at the end of the fishing harbor. I put the head down here and tried to up the pace. As I got close to the turn I remembered that we had been advised to take this turn wide to avoid the strong current that runs around the head here but I didn't feel any current so stayed where I was. I turned the corner and seen the first swimmer I had seen since the start off to my right. Feck it, I'll race him and I won't be last. I went hard for the last bit and managed to get to the slipway before him in just over 47 minutes. When I turned to look back there were 3-4 swimmers behind me - I wasn't last, great news. I got out, got changed, had a chat with a few people and there were still some swimmers finishing. Checked the results last night and shocked to see I finished 20th out of 50 finishers, I was firmly convinced for most of the swim I was at the back of the field. I now realise my guardian red canoe must have been watching a bunch of us as about 5 of us came in within a minute of each other. I am absolutely delighted with that, I feel a lot more comfortable about doing a 3.8km lake swim now. That said the 12 year old that finished the race in 40 mins did make me feel old.

A quick word of thanks to Drogheda Tri Club for a great event. There were loads of safety canoes and rescue boats for the swim and some of the swimmers that I 'beat' were actually club members who were bringing up the rear of the field in order to keep an eye on the slower / weaker swimmers. A really well organised event, followed by a BBQ that I unfortunately couldn't stay for. An event I'd definitely do again.

Tuesday Part 2
Run:
6 miles at 7.50 mile pace.

Wednesday
Nothing, too busy :mad:

Thursday
Swim
1,400m - 500m wu / 100 x 4 off 2.05 in on 1.50:)/1.55/1.55/2.00 - 100 recovery / 100 x 4 off 2.10 in on 1.55 / 1.55 / 2.00 / 2.00

Very happy with that set of 100m repeats. If I can get to the stage where I'm swimming 100m repeats comfortably in 1.45-1.50 I;ll be very happy.

Friday
Run
Nice gentle 8 miles @ avg. 8.20 pace

Bike
47kms / 1.50hrs / avg speed 26kph / 500m climbing. Found this one very tough for some reason, was absolutely dead towards the end.

Saturday
Run
Due a decent LSR this week so decided to aim for 3hrs and see how far I could get in that time. As with a lot of these types of runs I was running off HR and not pace with 150-155 bpm being the target.

21 miles / 2.56hrs / avg pace 8.24 min/mile / AHR 147.

Very pleased with that. I was very comfortable the whole time and only really started to feel the effort at around the 20 mile mark.

Sunday
Bike
Long bike today. Was feeling the previous days run in the legs and was tempted to take an easy route but decided to give the hills a go.

115kms / 4.15hrs / avg speed 27kph / 864m climbing.

It was good to get out for a longish ride but I need to do a couple of 5hr plus rides soon. I could have got to 5hrs easily enough on this ride but I was due home and couldn't stay out any longer.

Week Totals For 5 Weeks To Hardman
Swim 3,400m / 1hr25 mins - not a lot of swimming but what I would consider to be 2 x decent quality sessions.
Bike 162kms / 6.05hrs
Run 43 miles / 6hrs
Total 13.5hrs

Happy with a decent week but would have liked another swim. I'm happy with where my swim is but I'd like to try and get a 3,000m straight swim in this week to gauge long distance fitness. I'm very happy with my running and will be hoping to get another 3hr run in before the big day. As is usual with me the bike is a worry. I'd like to get close to 6.30hrs on the day and this means holding an average of 28kph which I don't think I'm capable off at the minute. I have at least 2 and possible 3 more long rides to do, all hopefully in and around the 5hr mark.

Thursday
Swim 1,300m but should have been more......Plan was to do 400m x 5 off 8.45. Did the first three reps nicely (8.02 / 8.05 / 8.05). 100m into the fourth rep when I realised I'd parked in a pay car park but had not gotten a ticket - and the clamping release fee in UCD is €80. AAgghhhhh - do I swim on and risk it or get out and rescue my car. Decided to get out. Got half dried, put on trousers with no underwear or socks. Managed to tear off the button on my trousers in the rush which meant that my trousers kept falling down as I ran to my car and me with no knickers on :P Got to car and it wasn't clamped but that was the end of that swim session. Oh well.........