Trials and tribulations. Time Trials that is!

Wednesday 27th February 2013

Swimming (00:56:21 / 1950Metres)

Back in the pool at the crack of dawn again. ( I don't even know dawn but she's always out with her crack at this time of the morning it seems!)
The session today was designed to measure and understand my Threshold Swim pace using a couple of Time Trials over 400M and 200M.
It was a bit complicated but here it is:

300M Warm up
6 X 50M Drills
150M Build
50M Easy
400M Time Trial
3 X 50m Drills
150M Build
50M Easy
200M Time Trial
200M Cool down

Then the fun bit - calculating everything
400M TT - 549 secs (9min 9secs)
200M TT - 272 secs (4min 32secs)
Threshold Speed = 200/(549-272) = 0.722M/sec
100M Speed 2min 18secs.

So that tells me quite a lot but I'm not all that sure what to do with it to be honest and I will have to rely on the expertise of Coach Oliver Harkin to tell us what the hell to do with it.

The swim felt pretty good apart from the leg kicks in the drills - I am hopeless at kicking and really don't like it.

Cycling (00:54:08 / 15.73 Miles / 17.40 MPH / HR Zone 2 / Avg Cadence 78rpm)

With the Club Time Trial coming up on Sunday I thought I would do a test run on the course so that I would at least have some sort of idea as to a potential time to aim for on Sunday.
It went pretty well and I was pleased with the split for the Time Trial section which I got at about 9.5 miles.
I'm not disclosing my time just in case it frightens all of the boys and girls in the Club!! (Or more likely makes them dislocate a rib laughing at me. Actually that might be an idea.)

The adjustments on the bike set up went well and raising the stem and changing the arm rests to the old wider ones from my other TT bars worked well and were definitely more comfortable.

I was also back to the Physio this afternoon and Laureen worked her magic again.  Things had been improving but the deep pressure inflicted on my Calf muscle by Laureen's sharp elbows has loosened me up even more.
Fingers crossed the improvement continues.

Footloose, not stiff.

Tuesday 26th February 2013

Running (5.25 Miles / 00:48:43 / 00:09:17/ HR Zone 3)

Steady run at a fairly comfortable pace.  The HR Zone doesn't tell the whole story as it went a bit bonkers for a couple of miles but I know that I felt really comfortable during the run and it was more of a Zone 2 run.

The body held together OK and all my lower limbs managed to stay attached and not disintegrate.

Back to the Physio tomorrow for some more torture so that should be interesting.

"Bear" basics.

Monday 25^th February 2013

Cycling (00:30:000 Turbo Session)

Unfortunately my Garmin did not register my speed or distance on this session tonight for some reason.  (Although I am sure it was probably an average of at least 30 mph!! Just to cause panic among my Club mates ahead of the Club Time Trial this Sunday!!!)  The reality is that I will have been lucky to average 20 mph.

I was taking the opportunity to further refine my position on the bike in the aero position with the new bars and to try and get a wee bit of time trialling practice in as I haven’t really done any for quite a while now.

I am looking forward to the Time Trial on Sunday morning as it will be a good chance to have a short blast on the bike on a pretty flat and fast route, albeit one which sometimes is like a wind tunnel.

My position is getting better on the bike and by raising the stem I can stay aero and comfortable for a bit longer than before. Of course aero is relative.  Mine been relative to a bear on a bike as opposed to the Praying Mantis build of some of the other guys.  Basically I block a lot more wind than some of the tiny guys.

My Achilles and foot injury seem to have healed up well with some rest and I’m thinking of giving a wee run a go over the next few days.  We’ll see how it goes.

Pretty busy in the pool today.

Wednesday 20th February 2013

Swimming (2000M / 00:48:39) 18M Pool at Gym
I'm sorry to say that this was a lunch time swim today instead of the planned 6AM swim as I just couldn't get out of bed.  I don't know how I managed to do so many early mornings last year.  I suppose I was just more motivated than I am now.

The good news was that the swim itself felt really good and the time is significantly better than my last 2K swim.  Partly this is down to being in the shorter pool but hopefully it is just a wee bit of swim fitness returning.

I'm even more pleased as I had to get out of the pool half way through and put my contact lens back in again as it came out in a waterlogged goggle.  The bloody things are still leaking.

The start of the swim was pretty cramped as there were 5 of us in about 2 lane widths but thankfully after 10 minutes or so it thinned out a bit.  At least it was somewhat of a simulation of a triathlon swim.

Giving up on the new website and back to the old faithful blog site.

Tuesday 19th February 2013

Running (6.44 miles / 01:00:00 / 00:09:20 per mile / HR Zone 2)

Back running again at a fairly easy pace.

I managed to get my Heart Rate Monitor working again - simply replaced the battery and hoped for the best.  So far so good, but I have been let down by this blooming thing so often that I don't expect it to last!

The run felt steady and pretty comfortable and I kept it at the right Heart Rate zone.

If you are reading this you will no doubt have noticed that I am back on the old blog address again.
Put simply the new website was just not doing the business.

I mean, is it me, or who the hell would offer a web site service but not allow you to paste pictures in to the blog.  Total stupidity, but I think they do that so that you will upgrade and pay for it.  Not me matey.  I'm too tight to pay for that when I can use the tried and tested blog for free.

So, just to celebrate my ability to post pics, here is one old faithful on my old faithful.

Sportsmans Duathlon - Sunday 17th February 2013 - Race Report

Sunday 17th February 2013

Setanta Duathlon (Run 2 / Bike 10 / Run 2)
Run 1 - 00:15:13
T1 - 00:01:59
Bike - 00:38:43
T2 - 00:01:07
Run 2 - 00:15:45

Total Time - 01:12:50

I was really looking forward to this event today as it marked the first proper big outing of our club, it was also the first event of the season and it was nice for me to get back to running after my tribulations with the dreaded Achilles.

Big thanks to Chris McNevison for the lift down and good company.

Run 1 - I remembered this route from the Brownlee Challenge 18 months ago and I knew it was a reasonably fast start and then had a bit of a tough last half mile up a lane. It turned out to be just as I remembered.

The first run went well for me and thankfully the Achilles held up well and didn't give me any bother at all. I was delighted to see the first mile trip over in just under 7.15 mins. The second mile wa a bit slower as it started to go uphill a wee bit. I stated (well the first 400M or so) with a couple of Clubmates, but they disappeared fairly quickly. My first lap of 15.13 was pretty pleasing.

In to transition for my traditionally slow change and then on to the bike.

The Bike - I was very excited about this as it was my first outing with the new aero bars and the bike was looking very sharp and fast. Unlike it's rider!

The course is a 2 loop affair which is pretty much down hill and then back up again. It's a long gradual slope and the wind seemed to build up a wee bit as the ride went on. The reality is that my bike fitness is really bad and it showed pretty early on.

Going down hill I was great and moving pretty quickly. Uphill was a wole different story.

That was one slow tough ride and it really didn't need to be.

Coming back up the road again on the second lap I could see some of my Club mates heading out on the run and they were looking strong. Coach Oliver Harkin being chased down hard by Mark Vaudry and not far behind were Arran McKee, Chris McNevison and "Big Andy" Campbell. Up ahead of them was Michael McLernon who went on to become the first man from the Club home with a stonking performance.

Rumours abound about Mark's tactics in sitting behind Oliver up to the last minute and leaping out for a sprint across the line. Purely rumours, but maybe a degreee of truth in it! no matter what - there were a lot of realy good runs from the guys.

Glad to be off the bike I was back in to T2 and a bit faster this time and out on the run.


Run 2 - I felt a bit stiff legged as I hit the road and even felt a slight cramping twinge on my right calf but it disappeared after half a mile.

I would be lying if I said that the run was comfortable but I pushed on through and managed not to be overtaken by anyone and went past at least 6 people. I was delighted to see that the second run was only just over 30 seconds slower the the first one and even though I haven't been doing as much running as I hoped to recently, it was clear that there is still a bit of strenght in there somewhere.

As I mentioend earlier, I did this event 18 months ago and I am sad to say that today I wa a full 5 minutes slower. I can permit maximum 1 minute on the wind but sadly the rest ia almost entirely down to the collapse in my bike fitmess.

At least I know what I need to work on now.
A Great day out and fantastic to feel part of the club and it is amazing how far we have come as a club in only 5 months.

Shorter than I hoped.

Friday 15th February 2013

Swimming (1600M / 00:35:52) 18M Pool at Gym

I had hoped to get a 2000M swim done at lunchtime today but after having a bit of a chat before getting in to the water I simply ran out of time, so settled on the old faithful 1600M.
Why 1600M?
Because in the 18M pool it is 90 lengths ? Nice and easy to remember and it is pretty much a mile. It?s nice to say I swam a mile at lunchtime. Not many people do that. Apart from other triathletes or swimmers! I was a wee bit slower than I expected but I?m not all that concerned about it as it felt very comfortable and I know there was a bit more in the tank.

The Road to endurance is back on again.

I collected my bike last night from Velo Cafe Magasin after they fitted my new Carbon TT Handlebars and bar end shifters and brakes. Nice new red bar tape and red cables and the bike is looking sharp

All I need to do now is change the winter tyres off it and out on the Red Schwalbe Ultremo ZXs and she is ready to roll at the Sportsman's Duathlon on Sunday.

The bike may be ready to go but will I? The Achilles has been good since my punishing at the hands of Laureen the Physio. I am Kinesio taped up and hopefully ready to roll ? so fingers crossed.

Work in progress. In more ways than one.

Wednesday 13th February 2013

Swimming (2000M/ 00:52:59) 25M Pool at Leisureplex.

Back to the early morning swims again and in the water at 6AM.
A bit of a shock to the system but not necesarily a bad thing. I was really looking forward to it although the 5.30 alarm call was not something that I can ever really look forward to.
This session was part of getting me back to basics with an endurance swim at a steady effort.
This is where I would love to say that it was great and all my past enduracne shone thorugh and it was great. Sadly this was not quite the case. I ddn't feel like I was strainig at any point but the speed has completely deserted me I'm afraid, (Not that what I had before could really be called speed!)
I am definintely a case of "work in progress," but I'm OK with that at this stage.

The other thing that is work in progress is the new website. Which you will have noticed if you are reading this already. This is my first ever attempt at setting up a website, so I have a lot to learn. I hope to grow this a bit and it should allow readers to interact a bit easier with me than the old blog site.
I still have the blog site as a back up and my old blogs are still available via this site under Links. Let's see how it goes.

Refocus and keep my chins up!

Thursday 7th February 2013

To Work -Running ( 7.80miles / 01:11:23  / 00:09:09 per mile)

From Work - Running ( 5.73 miles / 00:53:06  / 00:09:16 per mile) 
With a degree of trepidation I headed out in the early morning frost to run in to work.  I was hopeful that my Achilles would hold up the run as once AGAIN it was playing up.

The run to work is just under 8 miles and I have always thought of it as mostly downhill, however for some reason I seemed to be finding it mostly uphill.  Which I know is impossible but it felt like tough going. Maybe it was the backpack I was carrying or maybe it was just that it was early to be out running.  Either way it was a tough run in before starting the days’ work.

Thankfully the Achilles held up fine and I was feeling strong enough later in the day to make the return trip home again.

Unfortunately the radiator in work had not been working properly so my gloves and hat were still damp from the morning which was a tad unpleasant for a mile or so.

Fortunately the uphill run home felt like the downhill that the morning should have been.  I felt strong and very comfortable for the most part.

I had asked Keara to collect me about 2 miles from home as I couldn’t face the long 2 mile slog up the hill home again, partly out of tiredness but partly because I knew that that sort of uphill strain would not be good at all for a weak Achilles.

Thanks to my new favourite App, Glympse, Keara is able to track me live and see where I am, so she was able to just drive down at the right time to get me and no hanging around on anyone’s part.

I would definitely recommend Glympse for anyone who wants others to know where they are on long runs or bikes.  I intend to use it during the London Marathon so that Keara can track my progress easily.  It’s a simple idea and works really well, although it does tend to eat battery on the iPhone.

http://www.glympse.com/

Now for the bad news.  Friday morning brought a familiar ache in my Heel.  The runs had taken their toll and as I write this on Monday evening following a depressing weekend of no running I have to admit that I am beginning to sense defeat in my efforts to have a decent London Marathon.

 

I am pretty much beginning to resign my self to being able to cope with just a couple of runs per week, of which I need to try to get a long run in at the weekend and hopefully allow enough recovery to get a run of about 1Hr in during the week.

 

I hope that previous experience and a decent endurance base over the last number of years will see me through and if I can just relax and enjoy London and savour the atmosphere I can change my focus from performance to pure enjoyment.

 

I won't even go in to the impact on my training for Triathlon and my fears of the impact this is having on my Half Iron Distance plans.

 

Not in a good place but equally things can always be worse. Chins up!

Catching up on the last few days, feeling like Mario and my old enemy is back again.

Thursday 31st January 2013

Swimming (00:36:30 / 1600M – 18M Pool at Gym)

Back in to the pool at the Gym again.  It’s been a while and I’d love to say that I missed it but that would be a bit of a lie.

That is in terms of both the location and the activity.

I don’t know what it is but I am really not enjoying swimming all that much at the moment.  It is just plain boring and I may have become a bit resigned to the fact that I am not really going to improve my technique to the point where I look and swim half decent; rather I am more of a mind-set that if I can work on my endurance and make the swim feel comfortable rather then particularly quick then that’s where I am headed.

With that in mind I will still try to make at least one of the club swim sessions every week to at least avail of the excellent coaching, but I will do at least one more session each week just purely focussed on grinding out metres in the pool to build endurance.

I’m sure if Oliver Harkin is reading this he will be frustrated at my probably stupidity in this matter, but I have to feel comfortable with what I am doing and if it means that I may only improve my Half Iron or Full Iron distance swims be a few minutes, I can live with that.

So – the session today went pretty well, although I haven’t had a long swim just straight through like this for a few months as it has been most sessions with the coach in the Club, so I did start to feel a little fatigues towards the end. This just hit home to me how much mu endurance has faded.

Sunday 3rd February 2013

Cycling ( 00:45:00 / 9.33 Miles / 12.40 Mph / Cadence 93 rpm) TURBO Session

Sunday was meant to be my long run day this week.

I was looking forward to cranking out another 18 mile run and hopefully building on the long one last week.

Alas, my Achilles had other ideas.  The pain is BACK!!

Not as bad as it was before but enough to let me know that any plans to put the trainers on and crank out a long run were pie in the sky.

Frustrated, I decided to hit the Turbo to at least get some athletic benefit out of the weekend.

I focussed again on following the format of the Spin class on a Tuesday night with high rpm activity and really pushing things hard for intervals of time.

It went well and I finished with 8 simulated 30 second efforts out of the saddle sprinting up a hill with high resistance.  My legs were burning and left me with a sickly feeling as I collapsed on the handlebars at the end.  It felt good to feel bad.

Hopefully the rest will do my Achilles good, however, it is going to take a heel of a lot more than that to rid me of my sense of annoyance and frustration that it has flared up again.

       Now I know how Mario Balotelli felt.

 

 

Monday 4^th February 2013

Swimming (00:35:33 / 1600M – 18M Pool at Gym)

Gym pool again and it felt a bit easier today than last Thursday. Almost a minute faster is good news, but it is sadly nowhere near where it was this time last year – but that will come back again OK.

It might be time for a new set of goggle as the current ones are just leaking all the time now.  I’ve had them a while and they saw plenty of action last year, so there is probably no shame in changing them at this point.  I just need to find a bargain now.