Reach for the sky...

red face dave wrote: »

At least you have managed to get into the open water. Are you doing Gortnor Abbey this weekend???

Yeah bike and run not sure about swim after today will try to get into lake again maybe Thursday and see how that goes

16th may bike 34k run 2k .. cycled out to crossmolina to look at some of the bike route for the weekend.. glad i did.. more rolling than i thought and windy.. short run after

18th may..gortnor abbey triathlon
hmmm... local to me.. 10 minutes from house and very competitor friendly, in that you could mix and match the distances from the student and normal ( sprint ) distances.. so i had thought about doing the shorter swim of 350m and then changing to the longer bike and run.. BUT .. i lost a bit of confidence when i was in the lake for the first time on the tuesday before and although i wasnt 100 percent sure what i was doing i think that effectively made the decision for me.. so i didnt even bring the wetsuit ( idiot )
got there, eilish ..better half .. was swimming with christy her brother who has down syndrome .. great swimmer but hadnt done a lake swim before and we werent sure about following round the bouys .. more than likely would be fine but just to be sure eilish swam with him..and since she was i said she could wear my chip and wed effectively be a relay team..
anyway at the race briefing it was revealed that the shorter swim was all in shallow water ..shallow enough to stand up in easily.. so i was a pit peed off then that i hadnt brought the wetsuit and taken the chance to get some o/w experience and do a full , if short , triathlon..
horrible day.. gale force winds, lashing rain all day.. but with it being in a school, there was a gym , changing rooms ,proper car parking, loads of places to shelter before it..very well run.. il be back to to it all next year
so eilish and christy swam and got round in 18 mins..with eilish breaststroking the whole way.. id say if she could have freestyled she'd be well up in the swim times ..
ran up to transition with them, got chip, took an age to get helmet, shoes etc on and got going.. out and back and the 10k out was into a horrible wind..tough tough cycle out, of course lovely coming back, flying along, until an aul one that couldnt decide which side of the road she wanted to park her car made a bit of tit of things for a few of us.. anyway took 44 minutes..which is slow but seeing that some of the clubs much faster cyclists were in the high 30s i dont feel too bad about it, especially considering i havent been on the bike a lot lately..
got out of tranistion a little quicker and got going on the run..as usual took the first kilometre to get lungs to calm down and legs to wake up, felt like a slow and easy run but chip times have it at 23 minutes which is a 2 minute pb for me..and the previous time is from a straight 5k with no cycle before so thats nice..
havent done a thing since.. was in liverpool for the weekend spent saturday evening driving east and this morning driving west, have a cold now so im probably not doing anything today or tomorrow to make sure i get rid of it and then its going to be into the last 4 odd weeks of training for ballina with a vengeance.. at this stage ive realised that its all about getting through the swim, therel be no bike or run pbs.. just get thru the race and worry about impoving for the next one..
on the plus side at least we've found a nice spot for some open water swimming at gortnor abbey pier, hope to get out 3-4 times before ballina ..

thanks dave.. soft enough pb its an age since i ran 5k..
23rd may .. finally back to it.. 5.5k run 30 mins was nice to be running without some part of me being stiff or sore or tired.. 4 days off.. still nursing a cold , hoping to swim tonight but will make a call on it later..

27th may off .. better half working shouldve put bike up on turbo but couldnt be arsed.. god knows my cycling needs the work

28th may.. braved the lengths session for the first time.. in the lane with eilish and christy , christy swims a lot and is pretty fast all things considered, eilish doesnt swim a lot any more but is still very fast.. ( well to me anyway ) and i swim like a ferry crawling out of a port.. slow as hell..
so we agreed theyd just go around me , but i still felt under pressure.. it probably made me swim a bit faster but i did less.. probably no harm though if we do a few of these it might speed me up a bit.. anyway about 20 decent lenghts 500m and did a bit of treading water again with some degree of success..

29th may bike 22k.. savage weather, had hoped to go further but time restrictions put paid to that.. cycling is suffering with emphasis on swimming , into not the worst headwind on the way out was getting it tough to get to 30 kmph coming back of course was breaking 40.. and seeing as the chances of a windless day in the west are slim, i need to work on the into the wind bit..

today..core workout trying to get a prick of a lawnmower to start...

tonight.. eilish working late.. so unlikely to get out, maybe turbo.. could set it up on the patio and watch telly through the window !! as weather is predicted to be good we are hoping to get to lake or sea twice over the weekend..

6th June. 600 max lake swim. . 16k bike. 5.8k run

catweazle wrote: »

Rub baby oil under and around the edge of the suit - should help a lot

Thanks. Really wedged it up under armpits yesterday made a big difference. Will try the baby oil next time to make it easier to get off

swimming here a fair bit lately.. lovely spot.. pic is obviously from last week !

lough conn, bout 10 minutes down the road from the lodge pub if you know where that is.. could be off there this weekend as i cant get baby sitter to suit tides in killala ..

yeah i saw that.. myself and better half were saying it would be a pain for anyone just coming for the day..i assume its to do with tides...

be interesting to see if theres any more than normal around town at that time to support it.. also get to go out straight after..which is only good for locals i know..

10th june 750m pool swim.. 750 in one go no breaks, 5k run after

13th june 6am turbo 1 hr, 7pm 20k bike , 1k run

15th june 16k bike 30 mins.. 2k run .. bike close to flat out.. wouldve been hoping to be a bit better but a lot of my cycling lately has been junk miles so cant really expect more

16th june.. sea swim.. 1300m or thereabouts.. not quite all continuous but very close.. if the tide was higher i wouldve treaded rather than stopped and stood, but it was a low, high tide and at times the water was barely waist height .. almost harder not to stand up.. still good session for me to get some distance in.. tide meant to be a metre higher next weekend so hopefully will get out again ..

out and onto bike for 12k bike ..

funny week not as many days as i would like but again mostly double sessions.. eilish going to be working late this week and next and there has been mention of the dreaded bog.. so just going to have to take it as it comes for next few weeks.. more early mornings id imagine ..

20th .. blender 1.20 turbo.. bailed on the last 20 mins as had enough done at that stage, and it was getting late , i can never sleep right after turbos..
forgot what a good workout this one was though,

23rd june...5k race.. 21.45 big pb there but 5k pb was very soft.. anyway nice run to start 3k into the wind .. last 2k was tough, normally would have a tiny kick but hadnt a thing..

750 swim in the moy for ballina salmon run trial run.. went well, was second last out but didnt kill meself , never felt under pressure or anxious , not much flow in the river so hopefully itl be a bit faster on the day.. but happy with anyway.. didnt do anything else as legs were baked after the run earlier..

yeah in at the hotel, theres a bit of a shelf to stand on beside some building before you commit to swimming out into the river, very high tide in it and i could still stand up,im 6 2 and it was just up to my neck when i was standing... nah wasnt freezing, although 1 girl thought it was, it was warmer than the sea yesterday.. couldnt see a thing in it though,

24th off
25th quick 5.6k run
26th off again
27th bog
28th was supposed to be swimming but not sure on babysitters so hopefully tomorrow, will have to do something today though..and no doubt itl be back to the bog as well..

yep dave confusion reigns...
t.i. website and press release in the western and online
say 6.00 , flyer says 4.. trying to find out
will let you know as soon as i do