Feckin' rain.

Friday 30th September 2011

Heatwave my arse!!

Nuff said.

London Baby. Yeah!!!

Thursday 29th September 2011

This arrived in the post today.  Woo Hoo!!

For the first time ever I have been accepted for the London Marathon through the ballot entry.

To celebrate, I decided to skip my swimming club and crack open a beer.  Nice bit of training there!!

I will not be taking up the offer for 2012 and will defer it to 2013 as I don't want the Marathon to interfere with the Ironman training.

It is great to be in though and know that I have a nice trip planned for April 2013.  Bring it on!

It's Kona be a good one!

Wednesday 28th September 2011

Swimming
1500M - 00:36:38 in 18M pool at Gym.
This swim went OK today - thankfully after the last disaster in the pool last week.

Cycling
16.0 Miles - 01:10:13 (13.67mph / HR ?bpm Z? ?% of Max HR / Cadence 80rpm)
Cycle to and from work today.  This was a pretty enjoyable couple of rides.  The weather stayed nice, and was actually quite warm on the way home.
I am pleased with the way my climbing legs are improving - the BIG hill on the way home passed pretty easily today and I was able to go up it in a couple of gears higher then previously.

On a different note.
It is just over 1 week to go until the Ironman World Champs from Kona in Hawaii. (8th October)  I am getting pretty excited about this as it is just incredible what these guys are capable of in extreme heat and humidity,

My predictions are:
Andreas Raelert (Current men's wprld record holder)

Chrissie Wellington (Current Women's world record holder and 3 times past winner and never beaten in an Ironman)

I am even going to stick my neck out and predict a 1-2-3 for the UK, with Julie Dibbens and Rachel Joyce picking up 2nd and 3rd - we shall see!!

You can watch it live on the weblink :  http://ironmanworldchampionship.com/

Running with her for runher! If that makes sense?

Tuesday 27th September 2011

Running 
3.00 Miles - 00:28:06 (09.22 per mile / HR 168bpm Z4 92% Max)
A short run with Keara.  She is training for RunHer which is on Sunday 09/10/11.
This is a women only event held round Stormont Estate in Belfast and offers a 5K or 10K option.
There are expected to be about 1300 women running.
http://www.runher.co.uk/

I will be doing Marshall as usual and cheering the ladies on.

Keara was running well today and that time was a bit quicker than her last couple of runs - so the training effect must be paying off - or she was trying to get finished quicker so that I would stop talking.
I have a bit of a habit of talking quite a bit on runs.  I don't know of people like it or not - but it works for me.

For me the run was a bit weird as it felt very comfortable but my Heart Rate spiked really early and never really recovered to a decent average.
I'm not too worried and will put it down to the exertions of last weekend.

The Brownlees are coming - and I'm racing them!!

Monday 26th September 2011

Racing against Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee!!  Yee hah.

The World Champ and the number 2 in the world - the Brownlees are coming to do a charity Duathlon in Dundalk.

Entry is limited to 200 competitors - and I am one of them!

I can't believe I am going to get a chance to race with the greatest triathletes on the planet!!

In what other sport would you get a chance to so something like this??  Not many I think.

This is like getting to play football with Messi or golf with Rory or tennis with Nadal.

No training today - still resting on my laurels from last Saturday, but I think I will get back in to action tomorrow to make sure I am in top shape for taking on Alistair and Johnny.

Look out boys, I am in the form of my life!!

Strangford 888 Triathlon - Jeff is feeling EPIC.

Strangford 888 Triathlon

1K Swim(incl T1) - 00:22:542

80K Bike (incl T2)  - 02:53:28
8K Run - 00:39:19
Total time - 03:55:41

38th out of 53 overall. 

Well the day finally arrived and it is fair to say that I was keekin' myself before the start of this one.
I arrived early at Strangord to get organised as this was a split transition race.  I had to get my bike across to Portaferrry on the Ferry, register and set up the bike for T1 and then get the ferry back across to Strangford and get set up for T2 and the swim.

It turned out to be a fantastic day and the weather was very kind to us.  nice and bright and actually quite warm.

I was slightly panicked when I arrived and saw the speed of the current ripping up the narrows between Strangford and Portaferry across the 1K strip of water I was soon going to swim across.

It was so strong the ferry was pointed directly against the current but going sideways to the slipway - a nice bit of driving by the Ferrymaster.

Thankfully by the start of the swim, it was slack water and the tide was pretty mild.

one of the funny comments from the day was when Donald and I were talking before the start and commenting on how warm it was and that we may need sun cream.  Donald was dubious as he said the prospect of coconut sun cream might just be like wrapping us in a marinade for the Sharks.  Regae Regae sauce for triathletes!!  Made me laugh but was also slightly scary!!

The Swim

This was my first experience of a deep water start for a swim.  that means you swim out to a start point, tread water and then go when the hooter blows.  Unfortunately for me I was a little too relaxed in swimming out to the start point and was about 30 metres behind the start line when the hooter went off for the start. That meant I had clear water which was good because I didn't get punched or kicked, but it meant I had no group to draft off and it probably cost me about a minute on the swim time.
The swim went really well and I managed to only think about the mile of water below me once or twice.
I was happy with my swim from a strength perspective, but my sighting and navigation was poor, and I drifted a bit too far to the left of target and had to almost swim back across to the exit slipway.
I came out of the water in about 19 mins and went in to T1 feeling pretty good.

T1

I made a decision that as this was a 50 mile ride, that i would put my proper cycling shorts on over the top of my Trisuit to give me a little more padding for the longer ride.  This took a little bit of extra time, but I thought the extra comfort was worth an extra minute in T1.  This was a good decision.

The Bike

After about half a mile a guy passed me on the way out of Portaferry - this would turn out to be the last rider who went past me and stayed away. I managed not to get passed permanently by another rider and actually reeled in and passed about 6 or 7 other riders around the course.
the course was fantastic. Overall the course could be described as undulating - basically flat until Newtownards and then a nasty little diversion because the Carriageway from Ards to Comber was closed.  We had to then take the road out by Scrabo Tower - this added quite a bit of climbing - but I felt I handled it pretty well and never really felt under too much pressure.

I had a really scary incident on the decent off Scrabo.  There was quite a lot of traffic due to the road diversion, and coming downhill at about 30 mph, the car infront of me just decided to stop and let someone out of a side road without looking or indicating.

I slammed on the brakes and simultaneously hit some gravel.  The bike started to skid and I was resigned to either crashing in to the back of the car or throwing myself in to the ditch.  In my mind in a split second I decided on the ditch.  Just as I was about to do the deed, the car moved off and I lifted off the brakes and I managed to squeeze up the side of the car.  i did express my annoyance to the lady driver as I went past.  I think she learned some new Anglo Saxon words!!

The road from Comber through to Downpatrick as pretty up and down and really had no flat parts.  it was also into a strengthening wind.
I thought I was going well and it turned out to be the case.  I came in to Strangford in 2hrs 51 mins for the 50 miles (80K).  i was really chuffed to average about 16 to 17 mph for the ride.

The only slight disappointment was that I didn't plan my nutrition well enough for the bike and only had 2 gels and a bar of Kendal Mint Cake on the way round.  I started to feel very hungry at about 40 miles and really should have had more food with me.  Lesson learned.

T2

This went very well, even though taking my cycling gear off took a few extra seconds but I did not want to run in it as it was actually pretty hot by now and it is more comfortable running in Tri gear than cycling gear.

The Run

The run was 4 loops round a really lovely off road course.
it was tough enough as the start was a set of steps up on to a trail and then a short but steep climb up a trail, followed by a steepish downhill and then a longer flat stretch through trees.
It was very pretty.
I loved coming back through the T2 / Finish area at the end of eacch loop and the support from the crowd and marshalls was great the whole way.
I felt like a real triathlete as they were offering flat coke at the drinks stop - just like they do at Ironman.
I have to admit to walking the steps and hill for the last of the 2 laps, but it seemed to work and I was able to put on a good strong finish.

On the whole, I had expected to finish in around 4hr30mins and would have been delighted with 4hr15mins.  So, to finish in 3hr55mins was fantastic and I am feeling very pleased with myself.
it is obvious that the training is working out, and I was delighted that my legs felt so good coming off the bike and I got in to the running really quickly and easily.

Well done to Donald for the Tri and his great result and to Paul, Jim and Brian for their great times in the Duathlon.  A great day had by all.

In the words of the Money Supermarket advert -

 Jeff is feeling EPIC!

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/videos/you're-so-moneysupermarket/0011805/

Sink or Swim? Sink!!

Thursday 22nd September 2011

Swimming
1300M - 00:39:27 in 25M pool at Lisburn Leisureplex - Graduates swimming club.
Bloody awful!!
Goggles leaked the whole time.
Cramp in toes.
Cramp in foot.
Unable to get in to a rhythm at all.
This was meant to be a confidence boosting 2250M swim before the tri on Saturday.  It was terrible and I got out early and went home.

Here is what I came home to:

The email was tempting enough for me to go and buy some beer - I am just finishing one now.

Not exactly ideal Ironman training but I am sure everyone has bad training days and hopefully all the bad swimming is out of my system now.
No more training before Saturday - here's hoping.

A late surge.

Wednesday 21st September 2011

Running
5.01 Miles - 00:41:24 (8.17 per mile / HR 170bpm Z4 94% Max)
Last run before the Tri on Saturday - all went well and I felt strong towards the end and managed to push out a sub 8 min mile to finish off.  Pretty happy in the windy conditions.

By the way - here is the shark that I mentioned yesterday that was caught in Strangford - it looks pretty tame in his arms.  This was just before it bit off both of his legs and swam away with his head in it's mouth!! Yikes.  Nice one Sammy.

My Helmet is fine thanks.

Tuesday 20th September 2011

Cycling
15.02 Miles - 00:49:02 (18.4mph / HR 146bpm Z2 80% of Max HR / Cadence 84rpm)

Decided to have a bit of a bash at a time trial type ride this evening. (inspired by watching the Time Trial in the World Champs in Copenhagen on at the moment - Eurosport if you are interested - good stuff!)
I am delighted at the outcome - the speed was good and pretty consistent throughout, Heart Rate was within zone and the cadence was high.  overall a really pleasing run.

The only thing was that it was getting dark and there were long stretches of the route with no lighting - so there were a few "close" moments with kerbs in the dark - but I got through it unscathed.

Actually that nearly wasn't true.
Coming out of my garage on the way out for the ride, the garage door came down and clunked me on the head - thankfully I was wearing my helmet - so they are worth using.  Even in the privacy of your own home if not out on the road. Luckily no damage to my helmet!

As an aside - this article appeared in the Belfast Telegraph about a man who caught a Shark in Strangford Lough - this is where I will be swimming on Saturday! Gulp!!

Score on the Touching Cloth "O" meter -11/10 - I wasn't expecting Sharks aswell!!

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/fisherman-sammy-lands-5ft-shark-in-strangford-lough-16052293.html

Rain, Sausages and touching cloth - all in a day's training

Monday 19th September 2011

Swimming

1600M - 00:36:05 in 18M pool at Gym.
Session in the pool at Lunchtime - pretty enjoyable and I could have gone on a bit longer but had no time.

Running
3.00 Miles - 00:28:48 (9.36 per mile / HR 154bpm Z2 85% Max)
Decided to go for a short run in the pi$$1ng rain this evening after Keara had been to Zumba.  I was really just trying to loosen the legs a bit more after the trauma of the football on Friday night.  Happy with the run but suffered from repeating Chorizo sausage from my dinner.  Not a pleasant thing at all, but it did taste good first time around.

Only 4 days to go until the Strangford Tri - I am getting a bit nervous about it now as this will be the longest distance I have covered in a Tri - I hope that the swim will be OK even though it is across the Narrows - the bike is 80K (50 Miles) and that is the worrying bit - having to then run 8K (5 miles) after it.
I really hope the weather stays calm too.

Score on the Touching Cloth "O" meter -7/10.

Football Hurts.

Sunday 18th September 2011

Cycling
33.13 Miles - 02:35:10 (12.81mph / HR 130bpm Z2 72% of Max HR / Cadence 72rpm)
A nice ride with Nick (the B-I-L) on Sunday morning. Really enjoyed the route from home to Purdysburn, Carryduff, Ballynahinch, Anahilt and then home.
The weather stayed dry and the easy pace was just what I needed to keep in the HR Zone and ease off the pain in the muscles from playing 5-a-side football on Friday night.
Now, I like to think I am reasonably fit, but playing 3 x 7 minutes of football on Friday night really caused me a lot of pain. I can't believe how sore it is using different muscles.  I am glad it wasn't the Friday before the Tri this weekend.  Lesson learnt.

This still wasn't as sore as watching the Liverpool performance on Sunday against Spurs - PAINFUL!!!

In Dublin's fair city.

Running
6.02 Miles - 00:52:51 (8.47 per mile / HR 161bpm Z3 89% Max)
Quick run in Dublin while down on business.  Managed to cover a bit of the Dublin Marathon course - not that I am doing it this year - but nice to back on part of the route.

Running in a Hurricane

Monday 12th September 2011

Swimming

1150M - 00:28:55 in 18M pool at Gym.
Was meant to be a 1500M session but unfortunately for the first time I was caught short and had to make a hasty exit from the pool.  Apart from that I was happy enough with the swim, but just was running out of time during my lunch break to finish the rest of the session.

Running
5.00 Miles - 00:41:38 (8.19 per mile / HR 163bpm Z4 91% Max)
Happy with this tempo run in the middle of the tempest.  It was very windy as we are getting the tail end of Hhurricane Katia and for some reason I always seemed to be running in to it.

Limp Wristed Brick

Friday 9th September 2011

Cycling
21.01 Miles - 01:18:55 (16.00mph / HR 138bpm Z2 76% of Max HR / Cadence 81rpm)
21miler from home to Magheralin and back.  The route is almost completely flat, so I am a bit disappointed with the average speed, but there was quite a bit of traffic on the road and especially on the road in to Moira.
I used this ride to practice a bit more in the aero position and time trial it. I have discovered that spending any length of time down in the aero bars causes my left shoulder and wrist to get a bit sore.  Limp wristed I hear you say!!  In my defence I need to get set up properly on the bike and I think I will go for a Retul Bike fitting. It is meant to be the Puppy's twitcher.  I reckon it will be worth it as I will be spending a lot of time on the bike over the coming year and I want to make sure I have the right set up and am as comfortable as I can be and am getting the most efficient power out of the bike. (by the way it is not me in the picture!!)

http://www.retul.com/

Running
1.66 Miles - 00:15:00 (9:06 per mile / HR 154bpm Z2 85% Max)
Added a quick run straight after the bike to make up a brick session.  This felt very comfortable and easy within the Heart Rate zone.

Long and Smooth

Thursday 8th September 2011

Swimming

2110M - 00:58:14 in 25M pool at the Lisburn Leisureplex at Graduates Swim Club.
Decided to push the distance up a bit this week. 84 lenghts and focussing on the stroke length and smoothness.  Pretty pleased with the outcome.

1000 - Hitting a milestone

1000 views reached on the blog. 
Good stuff. Thanks for reading- whoever you all may be.

Slow Slow Fast

Wednesday 7th September 2011

Running
7.00 Miles - 01:07:44 (9:40 per mile / HR 150bpm Z2 83% Max)
Although the pace on this run was very slow, I am really pleased with it as I am now starting to get the hang of being disciplined about running within a particular heart rate zone. Each of the 7 miles were in the right zone.

Believe it or not, it is actually quite hard to run slower than you want to or what your legs are used to. In my case I would normally do 7miles in around 58-60 mins.
The purpose of staying in Zone 2 for Heart rate is to train my body's aerobic engine and learn to burn stored fat rather than the energy which has just recently been ploughed in to it. The benefits are twofold - you burn stored fat and lose weight and you build endurance with the eventual outcome that you can run faster for the same lower level of effort expended. This of course is really important for an Ironman - because if you expend all your energy early on - you will be blowing out your arse and struggling badly later on- as if it is not hard enough anyway.

So basically I am learning to run slower in order to eventually run faster and longer.  Bizarre but true.

I've got really bad wind!

Tuesday 6th September 2011

Cycling
16.05 Miles - 01:15:28 (13.65 mph / HR 129bpm Z2 71% of Max HR / Cadence ??rpm)
Truly a tale of two rides.
I cycled to work today and the ride down in to Belfast this morning was fantastic. Despite the weather looking a bit dodgy it turned out pretty good and stayed dry and pleasant. the ride took only 27 mins and the Heart rate was well under control.  The only minor blip was almost falling off the bike turning in to work as I hit a bit of a wet patch on a patched up bit of shiny tarmac.  Luckily I managed to catch it and stay up! Phew!

Now.... the ride home was horrendous!
The wind had picked up more than considerably - it was blowing a bloody gale.
I was cycling up the Lisburn Road directly in to the wind and my backpack was acting like a sail on my back and catching the wind.  then I would get hit with the side winds and was almost blown over about 5 times.  I was actually pretty scared and thought I was going to end up under a Bus.
I am not ashamed to say that I rode on the pavement up the hill for the last 1.5 miles as the wind was really dangerous and I didn't want to risk getting blown under a car.
What started out as a training ride home turned into just being pleased to get home.
The fact that it took me 48 mins to get home, compared to 37 mins last time coming back tells the story.
I am however, pleased that I still did it in that time and my Hear trate stayed reasonably under control.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger - I hope that is true.

Swimming

1000M - 00:24:24 in 18M pool at the Gym.
Got in a swim at lunch time today. It was meant to be yesterday but the pool was closed as apparently it was leaking.
Happy enough with the session and I was focusing on stroke count and stretching out the stroke.  i was delighted to be consistently averaging 14 strokes for the 18M lengths.  I would love to be able to bring this down to 12.

Stena Line Triathlon

Sunday, 4th September 2011

Stena Line Triathlon 2011 

 

 

Stena Line Triathlon

750m Swim - 00:17:22

T1 - 00:01:56

20K Bike - 00:44:51

T2 - 00:00:54

5K Run - 00:21:55

Total time - 01:26:56

80th out of 145 overall.  39th out of 64 in Age Group

 

 

I had been really looking forward to this race today for a number of reasons.  I hadn't had a pool based Tri since the Roe Valley Tri in May and I was keen to see how my swimming and biking had come on over the last couple of months.

 

Things started off a bit ropey for me.  As I was unpacking the bike from the car, I noticed that my front tyre had a puncture and this was despite checking everything rigorously as part of my prep yesterday.  I think I overinflated the tyre and caused a slow puncture.

I managed to keep calm and luckily had about 25 minutes before the Race Briefing started.  I am very proud to say that I kept calm and sorted the puncture in just over 5 mins. A new PB!

 

After racking the bike in transition and having the race briefing I went to leave my bag in the locker room in the leisure Centre.  This is where the rule of things happening in 3s kicked in.

Twice, the bloomin' lockers ate my 20p coin and I had to go up to reception to get them to give me another one.

 

I could feel the hackles starting to rise a little bit - but once again  I kept calm, got sorted and went round to the viewing gallery to watch the first 2 waves of swimmers start in the pool.

 

As I was watching I had a bad feeling and went back out to Transition to check my tyre pressure - and luckilly it was OK.

 

The Swim

I was in the 3rd wave out of 5 and there were only 4 of us the lane which made of a hassle free swim.

I started 3rd in the lane, but pretty quickly moved up to the front and felt great throughout the swim.

I exited the pool first in my lane and in a time of 16.44 mins.  The short run to transition and I was heading for the bike.

 

T1

All went pretty smoothly, although I am going to have to do something about socks - I take a bit of time to put them on, but I seem to be losing about 45secs to 1 min on this.  I might need to try no socks and add some talc.

 

The Bike

The first 5 miles or so are pretty much uphill, albeit only about a 3 or 4% gradient.  I managed to get off to a strong start and passed about 10 people on the uphill section.

The next 5 miles or so are flat but felt a bit tougher as there was a bit of a headwind but I kept turning over and progressed pretty well.

On the run in there is a fantastic downhill for over a mile, and I topped out about 40mph on the hill and loved being tucked in the aero position and going really quick.

Back in to transition and feeling really good - I only got passed once in 12 miles.

 

T2

This went very smoothly and I was in and out in no time.

 

The Run

The run is a 2 loop route uphill for about the first 1K and then levels out slightly and then uphill for another 0.5K - then a good downhill for the rest of the 2.5K loop.

I felt pretty rough for the first 1k, but steadied in to a rhythm and took advantage of the downhill to pick up a bit of speed.  The second loop went very well and I really bombed it on the downhill section back in again and was pleased with my sub 22 min run.

 

Overall a really pleasing event, managing to knock 2mins off my PB for the Sprint distance and 3.5 mins off my last pool Sprint Tri.

 

The next race is Strangford 888 and this will be the last event this season and before the Ironman training really starts.

 

 

On a different note, I stumbled across this band of triathletes called IRONBAND who do some pretty decent rock music - not too heavy and lots of tongue in cheekTri related songs, such as "Who stole my Bodyglide"

 

http://ironbandmusic.com/index.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oysters. The food of Champions. NOT!!!

Friday 2nd September 2011

Last Brick session before the Stena Line Triathlon on Sunday.  I will be taking it easy tomorrow and heading up to the Hillsborough Oyster Festival for a couple of beers. 
Nothing too much as I want to be in tip top form for Sunday morning. 
I will certainly not be eating any of the slippery little suckers on sale!!  Yeucchhh!

Cycling
6.01 Miles - 00:21:58 (16.4 mph / HR 158bpm Z3 87% of Max HR / Cadence 87rpm)
Just a short ride to make sure the bike was all set up OK ahead of Sunday, and a good chance to chuck in a cheeky little brick session too. 
It was actually about 7.5 miles, but I paused the Garmin when I was stopped at Traffic Lights for a long time and forgot to turn it back on again until I was about 1.5 miles down the Road. DOH!

Running
3.00 Miles - 00:24:44 (8:16 per mile / HR 175bpm Z4 96% Max)
I Decided to push it on a bit on the run, just to see how the legs reacted after being a little bit fatigued coming off the bike.  All went well and the average speed was good.
hopefully all is well for Sunday.

Thursday Splash.

Thursday 1st September  2011

Swimming

1500M - 00:39:50 in 25M pool at Lisburn Leisureplex.(60 lenghts)
Thursday nights are back on again at the Graduates Swimming Club.
Took it quite easy as I have the Tri on Sunday and I don't want to be too knackered going in to it.
Felt pretty good - so quite optimistic of a decent swim on Sunday.