Running with Stanley Gump and cycling with The ice-cream man.

Saturday 21^st June 2014

 

Running (03:01:04 / 21.00 Miles / 00:08:37 per mile / HRZ 2)

Long Run

 

It’s Saturday so it must be long run time again.  After putting out a note on Facebook to see if anyone else wanted to join me, my only taker was The Man, The Legend, The Earl of Tullynacross, Mr Awesome – Stanley Edgar.

This scared the crap out of me a bit as Stanley is a hell of a runner and I thought I was going to be in for a bit of a pasting today, especially over the longer distance.  He doesn’t have three Marathon des Sables under his belt for nothing!

 

As soon as we started out I mentioned to him again that this was going to be slow.  I hoped he heard.

After mile one I reckon he had heard me as we went through in about 8.45, which was pretty much about where I wanted to be.  Sadly the next three of four miles were a bit quicker and this saw Stanley pull away from me and maintain a gap of about 15 metres and it looked like he was effortlessly cruising along.

 

Then something strange happened at 7 miles.  He stopped. Just stopped!

It was reminiscent of the scene in Forrest Gump, when Forrest just stops running and announces to his gathered followers, “I think I’ll go home now.”

Not that Stanley is Forrest, although…..

Turns out he had a bit of a recurrence of his Quad injury and it had briefly got the better of him.

He sent me on and assured me that he would catch me up at the Garage around 11 miles.  When I got to the Garage, sure enough after a few minutes Stanley rolls up to me and was looking in slightly better shape.

 

Rather than take the projected 10 miles home on my initial route, he decided to take the marginally shorter 8 mile route home.  So we went our separate ways.

(As it turns out, he has a torn hamstring - ouch!)

 

I felt pretty strong the whole way through the run and by the 11 mile point was averaging 8.28 per mile.

The rest of the run went really well for me and I could feel that pace was steady and I felt strong.

 

The last mile up the hill home is always a bit of a slog at the end of a long run and this was no different, however I was delighted to come in with 21 miles done and a terrific (for me) average pace of 8.37 per mile. 

I had a daft thought about carrying on for a 5 mile loop to make up the marathon distance as I was pretty confident of brining it in around 3H 50 Mins, just for the hell of it but I decided against it as I don’t need those miles now but I will on 27^th of July.

 

All in all a great run.

 

Sunday 22^nd June 2014

 

Cycling (06:34:04 / 108.10 Miles / 16.50 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)

Long Ride – Century no.4 in this training cycle

Another Sunday, another Century ride planned and it looked like this one was going to be another nice day.  I certainly could get used to this nice weather.

Brendan was joining me for the ride today and this would be his longest ride ever.  Impressive, given that less than two months ago his longest ride was 25 miles.

Due to the fact that I was out the night before and had more than one beer, we opted for a 10 o'clock start time.

I picked a route that I haven't done before that would be relatively challenging and a bit of a different scene to remove the boredom.

Out through Portadown and Armagh and then on to Newry we were pushing along at a decent pace and Brendan was looking strong and pushing on well.  At the half way point in Warrenpoint we were over 17mph average speed.

Next up was Rostrevor for a quick sandwich stop which was well needed.

It's always hard to get going again once you have stopped, even for a short time and it took me a few miles to get the legs back in to action again.

Brendan found it harder to get going again and the run through to Kilkeel and then onwards to Newcastle proved to be a tough spell for him but he worked through it and kept the head down.

A quick stop in Newcastle to get a drink and Brendan was back in great form again.  There must have been some EPO in his drinks bottle because for the next few miles he was off like a rocket.

Maybe it was the promise I had made to buy him an ice cream from Brennans on the way home.

Anyway we settled down a bit and got in to a nice pace for the next few miles and despite having to stop for a passing Orange Order parade in Clough we made it to Brennans and treated ourselves to a large cone which would sustain us for the last 20 miles home.

Finally when we got through Ballynahinch, I took the front for the run home and we made great progress along the undulating road.

By the time I got back up home I had just tripped over 108 miles on the clock.  Well done Brendan on his maiden Century.

I must admit I felt fantastic through the whole ride.  I felt strong and focussed on staying steady and keeping control of the heart rate.  This all went perfectly to plan and I'm pretty pleased with the average speed of 16.5 MPH, although in hindsight I would now have liked to see it at 17 MPH but that can wait for another day.

The only thing that needs sorted still is the nutrition on the bike.  Snickers Bars and Ice Cream are just not going to cut it in Zurich!

Just one more long ride over 100 miles planned before tapering in to Zurich.

A bigger week in the pool and a pleasing Half Marathon.

Monday 16th June 2014

Cycling (00:58:22 / 16.78 Miles / 16.50 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 76)

My normal Monday commute and it was lovely to be cycling in warm weather.

The ride down wasn’t particularly speedy but coming home seemed to just fly along and it was a fastest ride home ever.

Swimming (00:44:21 / 1800M)

Club swim tonight which was un-coached.  I mostly just did an endurance set of 750M repeats then a few sprints thrown in at the end.  Not big distance but at least it got the arms and legs turning over.

Tuesday 17th June 2014

Running (00:54:40 / 6.41 Miles /00:08:31 per mile / HRZ 2)

An early morning run again with David before work and once again we were greeted with an absolutely glorious morning.  The sun was out, there was no wind and the River Lagan looked fantastic.  I love these early morning runs, despite the early start it is nice once you are up and about.

David was suffering from a bit of a niggle in his hip, so we stopped a couple of times for him to stretch it out, which he did with some sort of Yoga-tastic elasticity, which thankfully no one else observed as it may have raised a few eyebrows.  

The pace was actually just what I wanted as the next day was the Lisburn Half Marathon and I was trying to preserve my legs a bit for the next day.

It was good to get the run done and it left me feeling fresh for the Half Marathon.

On Tuesday evening some of us from the Club  had the pleasure of having a Run Technique and Form analysis carried out by Iain Getty.  Iain is a local Physio and funnily enough has a large clientele from the Club.

This was a real insight as I’ve never actually seen myself run on video before and it was quite surprising.

In short, I don’t swing my arms enough (or at all basically) and what movement there is, is too much side to side rather then back to front.  Also, I slightly over stride and need to lean forward more and look up.

I wonder how I’ve managed to run at all over these years with such bad technique.

It was good craic doing the session and Stevie Bloomer has wound up with another nickname now as “Usain” given his Gazelle like running style.

It will take a bit of effort and time to implement some of the changes but I will try to work on them one at a time.

Wednesday 18th June 2014

Swimming ( 01:11:34 / 3000M)

Back in the pool early again and a straight endurance session of 4 X 750M.  I think it went really well.  Interestingly the first 750M felt fairly tough although the time didn’t portray that.

This is exactly the sort of swim training that I think I need at the moment and given the low volume last week I am keen to step it up a bit this week.

Overall a good session and I’m pleased enough with the pace and particularly the level of effort vs. comfort.

Running (01:44:49 / 13.14 Miles /00:07:58 per mile / HRZ 3)
Lisburn Half Marathon

Possibly my favourite event of the year and certainly my most long standing event.  This year was my 11th straight year running the Half Marathon and I went in to it very optimistic of a PB given my decent form and run training recently.

As with most of my events I like to have a plan to try to stick to, and this time it was to run flat 8 Mins per mile and if there was a pacer for 1H 45 Mins I would stick with them.

Perversely I was looking forward to this being a really hot evening and I wasn’t disappointed.  It was over 20 degrees and I saw this as good training for Zurich where it is likely to be substantially warmer than this, so I need to get used to it.

I was delighted to see that there was indeed a pacer for 1:45 and I was hopeful then that my plan would work.

Keara and the Kids were down with Pond park Primary school and they had an exceptional turn out of over 250 people running in the 3K fun run, including Ben who came home in a respectable 14 minutes.  Not too bad.

As the gun went off it looked like this was the biggest crowd I had run in at this event.  I rapidly lost touch with the pacers as the crowd made it impossible to keep a steady pace and I had to zigzag through hundreds of people.

It was easily a mile before I got back to the pacers who at one point were about 300M ahead of me.

The crowds didn’t really thin out until about the three mile mark which was a bit of a nuisance but great to see the event be so successful.

It was around here that the first water station was and I thought I would be sensible and take on a bit of fluid.  Just as well I didn’t rally need it as most of the water in the cup went over me, up my nose and in my eyes.  What did go in my mouth wound up choking me and I choked for about half a mile. I hate drinking from cups when trying to run.

I caught up again to the pacers and was feeling fairly good as we progressed through 5 miles and then faced on of the major challenges on the route which is a steady climb of about three quarters of a mile.  It’s not steep but just a grind.  I just sat right on the pacer heels and ground it out.

From there on the next two miles were fairly speedy and then the hardest part of the course as we went up Waterloo Road.  The pacer shouted to everyone around him that if we could stick with him up through this section we would probably finish with him and this was enough for me to dig deep and work hard.  It worked and I was able to come out the end of the road only about 30 metres behind him as I took on more water but learned my lesson this time and walked while I drank.

I knew that the downhill stretch for the next mile or so would give me a chance to catch up, which it did but it took the whole mile as he stepped up his pace down the hill a bit also.

I kept calm and didn’t panic in to pushing too hard to catch him and it paid off.

At 11 miles I was running beside him and starting to press on a bit as I knew we only had 2 miles to go and the PB was well and truly on the cards.

With one mile to go I knew I had a PB and I really started to crank it up as much as I could.  The last 400M were a bit of a mad dash and I was delighted to finish in 1.44.49.  A PB by five minutes and most importantly another confidence boost ahead of Zurich.

Notably I had a negative split run again (which is becoming a speciality for me) by doing the second half of the course one minute faster than the first.  This is really satisfying and usually signifies good pacing and strength.

I finished 262nd out of 1063 finishers.  I’m delighted with that and was 39th out of 119 in my Age Group.

The PB is very satisfying and faster than I could have hoped for a year ago.

Friday 20th June 2014

Swimming ( 01:32:36 / 3800M)
Full Ironman Swim Distance

Another early session and this time I was hoping to get the full IM distance swim done.

Thankfully 152 lengths and 3800M later I got out of the pool felling pretty fresh and pleased to have knocked the distance out.

Timing wise it wasn’t bad and when I look back a couple of years ago to this sort of session, I am about 3 minutes faster, which is not too bad but I think the biggest difference is that previously I would have crawled out of the pool and curled up in an exhausted ball, whereas I am now feeling OK.  That’s the main aim as I want to complete the swim and feel fresh heading out on the bike.

Given the relatively low volume of swimming last week I wanted a bigger week this week and it certainly was bigger.

8600M of swimming which is just under 5.4 miles.  It feels good to have it done.

The weekend hopefully will be a big one also, with a 20 mile run and a cycle of 110 miles.  Hopefully the weather will be kind to me.

 

 

 

Big tan lines to match the big weekend of training.

Saturday 14th June 2014

Running (02:39:32 / 18.12 Miles /00:08:48 per mile / HRZ2)

Hardly the ideal preparation for an 18 mile run the next day but we had friends round and the beer and wine was flowing rather well.

So, when the alarm went off on Saturday morning I was a bit nervous as to how I would feel.

Thankfully I felt fine and eventually once I got myself sorted I headed out the door to get this run done.

Pretty quickly the effect of the night before made itself clear to me as I had awful heartburn for abut 5 miles.  It eventually subsided but wasn’t too pleasant while it lasted.

We are having a decent wee spell of nice weather and it was pretty humid on the run. This is all good practice for me ahead of Zurichwhich is sure to be hot and sticky.

I had a purpose in mind for the runtoday and it was to remain in control with heart rate, feel comfortable and not get out of breath – and if possible, maintain a pace around 8.45 -9.00 per mile.

As I progressed through the run I felt good, I had two gels with me but wound up only taking one of them through the run and didn’t really feel like I needed any more than that.

The pace splits were really consistent and the only mile split that was out of the normal range was the last mile up the big hill home, and even then it was only about 40 seconds off, which is not too bad.

I’m pretty chuffed with the run.  I felt strong, in control and aware of my pacing.  Job’s a good ‘un!

Sunday 15th June 2014

Cycling ( 101.02 miles / 06:16:10 / 16.10 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)
North Down Coastal Challenge

A couple of years ago I built this event in to my pre-Frankfurt preparation and I was keen to do the same again this time around.

The big Sportive is about 60 miles around the Ards Peninsula, so I decided to ride down there and home again afterwards to make it up to 100 miles.  A decent day of training.

Ian was joining me for this and only at the last minute did he decide to go the whole hog and do the 100 miler rather than meet me at the start in Bangor.  This was great news as it meant I would have company for the whole ride.

Starting out at about 8AM I had to put sun-cream on for the first time this year.  The only stuff we had was Factor 10, so I was fully anticipating a bit of burning as even at this time of the morning it was warm and bright.

The ride down to Bangor only took about an hour and a quarter and once registered, we started out ahead of the scheduled 10AM start time.

Within about one mile of starting out we had about 4 to 6 people latch on to our wheels and they literally followed us the whole way.  Sadly they were just happy to sit in and draft of us for the whole 32 miles down to Portaferry and never once took a turn at the front.  I’m not really up to speed on cycling etiquette but even I know that they should have been taking a turn on the front.  Maybe we should have taken it as a compliment because we were setting a decent pace and averaging about 18MPH without too much effort really.

The lunch stop in Portaferry was very welcome and set us up nicely for the return leg back to Bangor.  It turned out to be a 20 mile straight run in to a headwind all the way to Newtownards.  This was tough enough at times but we still kept the average speed up without destroying the legs.

It was great to meet up with a few more friends, Michael, Donald and Ivan and their friend Jonny on the way up the Ards Peninsula and ride along with them for some miles.  Donald even found the energy to ride ahead at speed just to get a good photo for Twitter!

Ian was holding up very well and we made good progress back toBangor and I think we finished up doing the 60 miles in about 3H45Mins.  Not too bad.

Psychologically it was tough to know that while everyone else was finished, we still had another 20 miles to ride home.  It was warm and windy and we never really seemed to get a proper tailwind.

I have to say that I’m really pleased with my ride as I felt strong the whole way through and not under pressure at any point.  Certainly there was a bit of tiredness in the legs on a few of the hills from time to time but really nothing too bad, and I could have comfortably run off the bike when I got back home again.

Ian did brilliantly and knocked out his first 100 mile ride and it was well earned in the heat and breeze.  It was great to have good company on the way round and plenty of laughs to keep us going.

That’s my third ride of 100 miles or more and I certainly felt a lot stronger on this one than any of the others and hopefully the strength is coming along at the right time.

Weekly Summary

Hours: 15H 49Mins
Swimming: 1300M
Cycling: 162.50 miles
Running: 34.38 miles

A decent week of training and the only disappointment was the low level of swimming,  I’ll pick up on that next week.

A bit of warmth on the bike at last.

Wednesday 11th June 2014

Running (01:00:26 / 6.75 Miles / 00:08:57 / HRZ2)

I took this run intentionally very easy as I wanted to keep the Heart rate really low and see what sort of pace it would translate to. It was pretty warm out but I'm pleased with the way it went and I really didn't feel like I was running with any degree of effort.

Thursday 12th June 2014

Cycling ( 01:27:08 / 23.59 MPH / 17.50 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 82)

What a glorious evening for a bike ride. I've been longing for a night like this to get out on the bike.  Short sleeves, shorts and no gloves.  It was still warm and makes such a change from being rained on in freezing conditions.

I wanted to get a nice wee 90 minute ride done and try to stay controlled and keep a decent pace.
It all went well and this is despite turning on to a C Road from Ballynahinch back towards Anahilt.  I didn't even know C roads existed but clearly they do.
Unfortunately for me this one had recently been covered in loose chippings and I had to ride in the gravel for about two miles.  This wasn't just a puncture risk but a serious hazard for coming off as the gravel was pretty deep at times.
I made it through and as a reward, the road back to Lisburn had recently been resurfaced and was pristine tarmac.  I flew along this bit.

Happy enough with the average speed and relatively easy effort but more pleased to enjoy some sunshine and warm breeze.

Back to it with a BIG day on Tuesday. Seven really is the magic number!

Monday 9th June 2014

Cycling ( 00:57:40 / 15.68 Miles / 16.40 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)

After taking Sunday off to rest I got back in to action with the usual commute.  Nothing really to note, except for a wee bit of a chase up the big hill home with Brendan.  Both of us injected a bit of pace and overtook each other on the way up.  Good fun.

Swimming (1300M / 00:46:41)

This was pretty much a recovery session tonight as most of us had been racing at various events over the weekend.
It's funny to say but it felt really easy, almost too easy. It served it's purpose though.

Tuesday 10th June 2014

Running (00:56:53 / 7.00 Miles / 00:08:08 per mile / HRZ 2)
Mid Tempo Run

This was an early start as I'd agreed to meet David at the Gym beside work at 7AM and do a run for about an hour.
Thankfully it was a really nice morning and we chose a nice route up along the tow path and back again.  Despite it being an early run and probably not the favourite time of the day for either of us to run, we got it done and actually came back quite a bit faster than we ran out. 
I'm chuffed with the average pace and particularly the Heart rate.  It felt good and a bit of strength seemed to come through.  It was nice to have David keeping the pace steady as he's a lot quicker than me.

Cycling (20.41 Miles / 01:26:27 / 14.20 HRZ 2 / 14.20 MPH / Cadence 68) Elevation 741M
Pond Park Hills X 7.

I'd got it in my head (and in my training plan) that I will be doing 7 repeats of the hill for the next few weeks, so I headed out feeling fairly optimistic about the set.
I managed to get two repeats in before Aaron and Nelson joined, and then Brendan after another one.
It was great riding up with the guys and made the effort feel easier as we chatted on the way up.  There was no drafting but just knowing someone was beside you was a good boost.

I'm delighted that the seven repeats went well and timings were pretty consistent, with the splits being - 8.11 / 7.54 / 8.15 / 8.26 / 8.26 / 8.53 / 8.21 - Average Repeat 8.32.

The most important thing was that I controlled my Heart rate really well all the way through, even with the 40 MPH top speed on the way down again!

Running (00:18:51 /2.51 Miles / 00:07:32 per mile / HRZ 3)
Brick Session

My second run of the day today was pretty much straight off the bike with the boys. A straight out and back run with a big hill to come back up again.
It went well but the hill was a tough grind, but average speed was a bit speedier than I had thought I might do.

Not a bad day of training at all.

Tri Limits 71.3 Half Iron Distance Race - Race Report

Thursday 5^th June 2014

Cycling (15.78 Miles / 00:56:48 / 16.80 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)

Commute in and out of work with a view to just keeping the legs spinning over and loose ahead of the big race on Saturday.

All went well and the good feelings on the bike just keep coming.  Hope if continues.

Saturday 7^th June 2014

Tri Limits 71.3 Half Iron Distance Race – 05:41:26 - Overall 33^rd from 56

Yep, you read it right, 71.3.  Not 70.3 which is the normal Half Iron distance race.  The Guys at Tri Limits like to do things a bit different and in this case they advertise it as “Going the extra mile”, literally!

And the best news is that the extra mile is not on the bike but on the run, just to really make you suffer.

Pre race I was feeling pretty confident in my training and potential for a decent performance and I had been pretty methodical in my expectations and planning as to how I wanted the race to go.

I set my expectations delivering times to get me a PB and each discipline was to be:

Swim - 45 Mins

T1 -  5 Mins

Bike – 3H 15 Mins

T2 – 5 Mins

Run – 2Hrs

TOTAL Time 6H 10 Mins

This time would give me a PB of nearly half an hour on my previous best of 6H 38 Mins.  That would represent a great day of racing.

The weather forecast for the day was absolutely awful.  Heavy rain and thunder predicted throughout the whole day.  Waking up early on Saturday morning and the forecast was sadly proven right.  It was absolutely chucking it down and when Ben arrived to collect me, he got soaked just getting out of his car to put my bike in the boot.  This was going to be a tough day out.

When we got down to Eskragh it had calmed down a little bit and the rain had stopped and there was a bit of wind, but nothing really to worry about.  The lake looked lovely and was very calm.  I was even told that the water temperature was not too bad either.  We would see about that one!

At registration we met up with the other guys from the Club who were racing, Gavin, Aaron, Andy and surprise guest, Mark, who had just completed Ironman Lanzarote three weeks ago but decided that he should just rock up and have a bash at this!!

The usual flapping around getting set up went pretty quickly and before I realised, it was time to race.

One thing I realised was that I was a lot more relaxed and casual about my pre race routine than normal and I’m not sure why but luckily I didn’t make any mistakes.

The Swim – 00:35:32

I was a bit unsure if I could achieve my goal of 45 minutes on the swim as I haven’t done an Open Water Swim all season and this may have been a negative.

From the minute I got in to the water I felt pretty good.  It was a decent temperature and was very calm.  The buoys looked a long way off for the two lap route, but they always do look further away then they actually are.

The hooter went and we were off.  This isn’t a big race, so the thrashing and fighting at the start isn’t too bad and within 100m or so I was in relatively clear water with a few people around me.

Then right on cue, my usual fight for breath at this stage of an Open Water Swim got the better of me.

I felt like I had too much air in my lungs and was not expelling enough, creating a sort of hyperventilation.  I am used to this now and I knew it was just a reaction to the swim start.  I breast stroked for a moment and gathered my self, focused on blowing bubbles on my out-breath and told myself to wise up.

Within about 2 minutes I was absolutely fine and in a good rhythm for the swim.  It felt really comfortable, not fast but good.

At the end of the first lap I was tempted to sneak a peak at my watch to check progress but decided not to as I thought it might put me off in case I was slower than I hoped.

The second lap went well, apart from some awful sighting on my part which meant I had to divert almost 90 degrees to avoid missing a buoy.

Eventually I got out of the water and as I ran towards transition I looked at my watch and couldn’t quite believe that it said 34 Mins and something seconds.  I honestly thought that I must have banged it on a buoy and stopped the watch.  That was the most unbelievable swim time I have ever done and it felt comfortable which was amazing.

T1 – 00:05:31

My nemesis. I always have awful T1 times, so my goal of 5 minutes was going to be a challenge.
I opted for socks on the bike as I thought it might be a bit cold and I also put on my long sleeved jersey as it is both windproof, breathable and mostly waterproof.  This meant I was a bit slower than hoped but I was still out of there in 5 minutes and a few seconds.
So far all was going to plan or better.

The Bike – 03:03:48 (including T2)

Having done the race route a couple of nights earlier with Ben, I was hopeful of a decent ride today.

This didn’t start out the best as I was fiddling with my Garmin trying to get it to transfer from T1 timing to the Bike and it messed everything up, I almost stopped the bike as I was going so slow trying to sort it out as I wanted ideally to see my bike info on the screen.  Alas this was not to be as it had skipped on through the bike and T2 and as now in run mode.  Not the best but at least I could get a gauge of time and Heart rate.

I got in to a bit of a rhythm and pushed on.

The bike route is 3 loops of a decent course with a couple of short rolling hills but mostly flat.  There was a bit of a tailwind on the way out and it was in to me on the way back a bit which meant the return leg was about 2 or 3 minutes slower then the outbound leg.

The good thing about the looped out and back course was that I could see my Club mates and other competitors at intervals and gauge how I and they were going.

I could tell straight away the Big Andy was absolutely flying and he was being chased down fast by Aaron and then Mark, Keith and Gavin.  Ben was a few minutes behind me.

As the laps progressed I failed to make time on any of them and most of them probably put a bit of time in to me but I did catch some people on the bike and made up a few places in the ranking.

I focused on my plan of getting in my nutrition as I went along and treated this very much as a trial run for Ironman in July.  I took a Gel every 30 minutes and food in the 15 minutes in between the gels.  I just drank to thirst and it all seemed to go well and I also felt like I was pushing a good steady pace.  At no time did I feel tired or under pressure.

The Garmin incident meant I had to guess my time, but as I finished the third loop I was guessing on a ride of just under three hours, which was way ahead of schedule also.  This was particularly pleasing as the conditions with rain and the breeze were not perfect.

The last mile in to T2 is on the run course so I was able to see that Andy was out front on the run and looking very strong.  Mark and Aaron were behind him and Keith was just heading out.

As I came down the hill in to T2, Gavin was heading out on his run.  He just did  a 3.17 Marathon last week so I knew he would be quick.

On the whole I was delighted with my bike.  It was controlled, fast (for me) and left me feeling strong for the run.

T2

This was a bit quicker than T1 and would have been quicker if I hadn’t opted to change socks as the other ones were soaking and I didn’t want to risk a blister.

The Run – 01:56:35

I had been looking forward to this and based on my training runs, felt that a two hour half marathon was entirely possible.  My only concern at the time was that I haven’t done many Brick sessions so I hoped the legs would transition OK from bike to run.

As I got going I realised that I was running at 7.30 per mile pace.  Far too fast to be sustained but strangely comfortable.  I decided to be comfortable and ease it off and aim to about 8.15 per mile pace and see how I got on  with that.  No point in blowing up now, If I had anything left later on I could push on.

The run was a SIX loop out and back course.  Mentally this might be as much of a challenge as the distance itself.  Then it hit me that the run was 14 miles and not 13.  Damn that extra mile.

I decided not to focus too much on distance and think more about counting down the loops as I went through them.

It also helped having a marker on the other guys as I passed them twice on each loop to see how I was progressing.

Within about 3 miles I realised that no one was passing me on the run other than those who were laps ahead of me and competing at the pointier end of the race.  No one from my sort of grouping was passing me and if anything I was passing a number of people.

Getting the odd wave, shout of encouragement or high five from the guys as we passed was a good lift and it helped to see the gap close slightly on a few of them as we went along.

I managed the nutrition well and took a gel right on plan at he end of loops 2 and 4, and a drink of water at the end of each loop.  This was in my plan, so I stuck to it and it worked.

By the time I was finishing loop4, Andy was on his last loop and was looking strong on his run in and was on for a cracking time.

As I got to the end of loop 4 I caught up to Aaron as he finished his fifth loop and we ran together to the turnaround point on lap 5.  As we rounded it and he headed for home, I told him to push on which he duly did.  For some reason unknown to me I just seemed to tag on to him and increased my pace as he stepped it up a bit.  This was stupid on my part.  What was I thinking/  It was his last lap not mine.  I still had at least three miles to go, but I just felt good and stuck with him and we ran up to the aid station together.  He veered off for the finish line and a hugely impressive time as I turned and went back for another loop.

As this was the last loop I decided to move it on a bit and see if I could up the pace.  I felt a bit tired but tried to focus on my form and being just in the moment and not thinking too far down the road.

As I rounded the last run point and back up the road for the last mile, I knew I had a HUGE PB in the bag and wanted to get in as fast as I could.  The last half mile was genuinely quick for me and I think the last 2 miles were both in around the 7.45 per mile pace.  Not too bad at the end of a Half Ironman.

Even more surprising to me when I reviewed the final results was that I had the second fastest run split from the club behind Gavin who just looked on fire on the run.  He ran about 1.53 and I ran 1.56.  I’m might proud of that time.  The Half Marathon distance went through in 1.48.  Stand alone that would have been a PB!

Overall time – 05:41: 26

Summary

To finish with a PB of almost an hour was mind blowing.  To beat my predicted times by half an hour was very pleasing.

I take away a real sense of satisfaction from the performance and a degree of confidence that the training is doing what it should do.

I also take a note of caution that just because it happened in a Half it might not happen in a full Ironman.  It is a completely different beast and I probably need to be a bit more conservative in the big race, even if I am feeling good.  It can go pear shaped all too quickly.

My drink and nutrition plan worked well and I will stick with those principles for Zurich.

My equipment worked well, excepting the Garmin incident, which was my own fault.

The result was good and it sets me up nicely for the last seven weeks of training.

Well done to Andy, Gavin, Keith, Aaron, Ben and Mark.  It was a great day out and nice to do it with friends.

Looking young and feeling good. Not often I get to say that. Even if it's only me saying it!

Monday 2nd June 2014




Most important thing of all today is that my gorgeous Daughter Erin turned 16.
Now I know most of you are thinking Wow he can't possibly have a daughter that old, he looks so young, virile and fit.  How can this be?  Well it's true, I am really that old but I just hide it well.









Cycling ( 00:58:07 / 15.83 Miles / 16.5 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)
Commute.




The commute went well again in both directions.  I am noticing that compared to a couple of months ago I am quite a bit stronger on the ride home and feel pretty relaxed up the big hill home, where it used to be a bit of a grind.


I have to do well on it a Brendan is nipping at my heels all the way up the hill.




Swimming (2500M / 00:56:29)
Endurance Swim




The Club swim tonight was our first session without Coach Oliver as he has finished with us for the season.  Arran had laid out a set for everyone, but I went off piste and did my own set of 4 X 750M plus 250M at the end.


I did feel a bit bad doing my own thing but I need the endurance at the moment and I didn't get in anyone's way.


It went really well and I'm delighted with the time and importantly I felt extremely comfortable throughout.  Progress in the pool is good.  I'm not necessarily getting a lot faster but I'm feeling stronger and fitter and the reality is that's what I need for Ironman.






Tuesday 3rd June 2014


Cycling (23.10 Miles / 01:20:21 / 17.00 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 77)


My next race of the season is on Saturday and it's a really important one as it's a Half Iron distance race.  It's a key part of the build up to Ironman and it will give me a good chance to try out a lot of my plans, such as nutrition, pacing and execution.


I hooked up with the legend that is Ben Dooley and we headed down to do a reconnaissance of the bike route.  It's a three loop course and we did one full loop.
It's a good course and can be ridden the whole way in the big ring which, if conditions are Ok should mean a decent time.


Ben and I averaged 17MPH without really putting a lot of effort in, however the weather forecast for Saturday is awful so things will no doubt get a bit tougher on Saturday.




Wednesday 4th June 2014


Running ( 00:50:03 / 6.00 Miles / 00:08:20 per mile / HRZ 2)


This was an easy run tonight and the aim was just to keep the legs fresh and it went just to plan and in fact it was a real pleasure.  I felt light and hardly out of breath at any time.
I just hope this sort of feeling carries through to Saturday.

A good week let down by a lazy Sunday.

Following the exertions of the weekend I decided to take Monday easy and not train and have a bit of a family day instead.

It may have been lees painful to go training as we would up shopping for the Kids summer clothes in Belfast and the pain in my wallet will stay with me for a while!

Tuesday 27^th May 2014

Running (00:27:28 / 3.25 Miles / 00:08:27 per mile / HRZ2)

Tempo Run

A total disaster.  That’s all I can really say about this run.

I set out with David and Ian to do a brisk 10K but found myself blowing to pieces after only 1.5 miles and I had to take a short cut and end the run early.

I am putting it down to fatigue from a heavy weekend of racing and biking but it still was a very disappointing effort.

Cycling (16.19 Miles / 00:52:49 / 18.40 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 79)

Club Time Trial

Every so often we do a time trial with the Club over a flat out and back route which just falls short of 10 miles at 9.7 Miles

Conditions were good as it was a nice dry evening with what appeared to a light breeze.  After meeting up with Stuart and cycling down early, we let Arran get away for his run while I timed him.

He knocked out a pretty impressive time of just over 23 minutes.  I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere near that time but at least it gave me a good marker point to go for.

My effort at the Time Trial went rather well I think.  The outward stretch felt good and I held the aero position fairly comfortably for most of the stretch and I was feeling strong and concentrated on good form and cadence.  We had been set off at one minute intervals, so my objective was firstly not to be caught from behind but also to try to make up time on the man in front of me.  Unlikely to be honest but at least it was a goal.

As I approached the Moira Roundabout for the half way turn Ii saw Gavin first and then Patrick come back the other way.  It looked like Patrick was holding or maybe stretching the one minute gap on me but I felt like I may have made up a wee bit of time on Gavin as Patrick was closing on him.  Sadly I had forgotten how long it takes to get round the Moira roundabout and by the time I came back round, both of them were out of sight.

The stretch home was definitely more in to the wind.  It wasn’t strong but forced me to keep in a relatively easy gear and just spin the pedals rather than grind a gear.

I crossed the line with a time of 25:46 – which gave me 7^th place out of 15.  I was happy with that and got closer to some guys than I would have expected.  Well done to Aaron for winning in the smoking time of 22:34.

Wednesday 28^th May 2014

 

Cycling (16.41 Miles / 01:18:10 / 12.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 66) Elevation 642M

Pond Park Hills X 6

Up early and back on the hill.  After my last effort I was hoping to do a bit better and thankfully things went pretty well for me.

I managed an average climb time of 08:46 which is steady enough.  Not my fastest average time but still decent enough and I felt decent enough throughout the climbs.

Next week as I have a Half Ironman race at the weekend I will probably cut this back to just four reps. and save the legs a bit for the race.

Running (01:00:00 / 7.05 Miles / 00:08:31 per mile / HRZ2)

Exorcising the demons of my disastrous run on Tuesday was the name of  the game.

I set out with a definite objective of keeping within the HR Zone and not worrying what pace that led me to.  Luckily it went rather well and the pace was steady and at no time did I fell anywhere near as fatigued as I did the previous day.

Swimming (00:56:45 / 2200M)

Endurance Session

We very nearly had a lane each at training tonight.  Arran was coaching and there were only three of us in the session across the two lanes.

Sean and I took the slower lane and let Brendan have a lane to himself.

I wanted to get a decent longer endurance session and Arran obliged with a warm up and 3 sets of 600M with varying pace but focused on maintaining a consistent pace.

Things then started to get a bit freaky.

Sean and I opted to take one side of the lane each and bizarrely we matched each other almost stroke for stroke and second for second.  It was brilliant to have someone right beside me and even a small thing like having the spray from someone’s stroke hit me in the face and mouth as their arm left the water was good as it marginally replicated some race conditions.

I felt strong through the whole session and pleased with the pacing.

Friday 30^th May 2014

Swimming (01:17:30 / 3250M)

Endurance Session

The dreaded early morning start began with my alarm going off at 5am and the inner dialogue in my head having a good old argument with itself.  One side saying just reset the alarm and go back to sleep but then the other side saying I needed to do this and I was almost awake anyway. This literally went on for about five minutes and the motivated side of my brain eventually won out.

I was in the water for 5.35am and started out on my session to do 3250M – which is 130 lengths of the pool.

There were a few other people in the lanes and I was sharing with a lady who was breast-stoking (the swim stroke and not some sort of sexual thing) rather quickly.  She kept pace with me and at times managed to slip ahead.

I felt pretty crap about being overtaken by her but realised she was actually quite decent.

The time passed pretty quickly and at the end if I had more time I honestly think I would have carried on to do the full 152 lengths or 3800M which is the Ironman swim distance.

Cycling (00:58:45  / 15.74 Miles / 16.2 MPH / HRZ2 / Cadence 75)

Commuting in and out of work was pretty decent today.  The weather wasn’t bad and the traffic wasn’t awful.

I know that the commute started out as a means to get “free” miles of training done but I think I will keep it up even once Ironman is done as I do enjoy it – although maybe I’m just saying that because the weather is a bit better and I’m not riding in frost, rain and darkness.

Saturday 31st May 2014

Running (02:18:41 / 16.00 / 00:08:36 per mile / HRZ2)

I was dreading this long run a bit as I haven't been going all that well on the long run recently but I was determined to get it done and even try to make it as enjoyable as possible.
I picked a nice out and back route to make it simple and take the thinking out of the equation.

I settled in with a nice steady heart rate and aimed to maintain this and pace.  The heat was a bit more than I was used to so I carried the bigger water bottle with me and tried to keep sipping as I went.

I am delighted with the  way the run went.  Average Heart rate stayed well within Zone 2 and the pace was really comfortable and incredibly 14 of the 16 miles were within 10 seconds of the average pace of 8.36 per mile.  That was the most pleasing part of the whole run.

I let myself down on Sunday by just not doing anything at all.  I was supposed to do a long bike ride but I just got a bit lazy and did nothing.
Did it feel good?  Not really actually.  The weather was meant to be total rubbish and typically the weather turned out nice the time I decide not to go out.