300th Post - That's quite a lot. Circuits today.

Tuesday 13th November 2012

Circuits - 45 Mins

This is my 300th post in the Jellyman blog - i never thought I would keep it up that long, or indeed that it would have been read over 11,000 times.  I'll keep it going for a bit longer I think.

Back to circuit training today at the Gym.  First time back in over 6 weeks since the foot injury started up.

It went well but I know I will be a bit sore tomorrow.  Hopefully it will be  a good hurt.

Yassos and Lung busters.

Monday 12^th November 2012

Running

2.62 Miles / 00:27:07 / 00:10:21 per mile

A Lunchtime interval session today and thankfully no foot pain.

A wee bit of a warm up run at a very easy pace and then 3 X  ½ mile intervals at target pace of 3.45 (7.30 / mile) and 3 minute recovery between sets, then a short cool down run.

Everything went well to plan and each of the sets was completed under target time – coming in at 3.26 / 3.24 / 3.24 for the 3 X ½ mile sets.

These sets are basically a type of interval training called Yasso 800s.

I think I have mentioned them before. Designed by Running Guru, Bart Yasso – they are designed to help improve your speed in working towards a marathon. Simply put, you decide on a target marathon time, e.g. 3h 45m and then translate that to a 800M interval at 3m 45s.

Very simple but effective.

I have tried these before and they are effective and hard work.

The problem is that I have never really stuck at it properly the whole way through a marathon training schedule.  This time I hope to; a) be injury-proof enough to get through the planned schedule, and b) keep up the Yassos each week, along with some other intervals planned to improve my speed over the 26.2.

The plan is to increase the number of repetitions that I can do at target pace.  Ideally not increasing the number until I can achieve all within target pace.

At the end of this week I have entered the Seeley Cup 10K race in Ormeau Park in Belfast.  I had always intended this to be a bit of a crack at a new PB for the distance as I had hoped to have some decent speed work training under my belt over the last 8 weeks.  Alas this was not to be the case, so expectations of a new PB are probably pie in the sky and I think that anything under 51 minutes will be a bloody good result for me.  I know that I could hold 3 or maybe even 4 miles at 8 min mile pace, but I have no idea how much I will detonate after that and how much time I am likely to loose as a result – but we shall see soon enough!

 

Swimming

Training session with Tri Club - 1650M (Sets)

 

This was a fairly tough session tonight.  Plenty of work on the legs tonight, mostly with the fins on.

The sets of 25M race sprints at the end were an absolute lung buster but great fun to have a bit of a smack down race.  I actually surprised myself at being able to move relatively quickly in the sprint, even though I lost mine.  Good fun though.

Last Week – saw me get back to running for the first time properly in a while.  I managed a nice slow run in London and then a good lunchtime run later in the week.  4 miles which included a 1 mile warm up and cool down sandwiched around 2 miles at sub 8min / mile pace.

It felt comfortable enough and pain free also, which was encouraging.  The pace was even well under 8 mins at about 7.45 per mile when I pushed on a bit.

Just a wee one but it felt good.

Monday 5th November 2012

Running
3.00 miles / 00:31:01 / 00:10:20 per mile

Delighted to be out for a run tonight. Over in London for work and I just headed out for a nice easy slow run just to get a few easy miles on the foot again.
Thankfully it went well and I experienced no pain at all.
I really hope that it feels ok tomorrow. That will be the real test but so far so good.
I am just dying to get stuck in to my London Marathon training with some purpose now.
Here's hoping!

Remember me? No. I don't either!!

Sunday 4th November 2012

I have had a bit of a crap time for the last 5 or 6 weeks.  The lingering injury in my foot has been nagging at me still and I have only managed to run about 3 times in the last 6 weeks.  Pretty pish!

I have been to the Physio over the last 2 weeks and the pain from my toe had developed in to a fairly severe pain in my foot.
The physio diagnosed this as an injured tendon between the big and 2nd toe and it was aggravating a sheath covering the tendons on the foot.

He also recommended something that I had been told to do about 1 year ago and never did.  Go to a Podiatrist and get fitted for orthotics.
My big flat feet may well be catching up with me.
He also recommended that I should get an appointment to have an X-ray just to rule out any chances of something broken in my foot.

Now, I have been paying a ridiculous amount of money to BUPA private medical insurance every month for the last 19 years and thankfully it came in to its own this time.
I got a letter from my Doctor to authorise an X-ray, and I called the Ulster Clinic at 10.30 to book an X-ray.  By 12.30 I had been in, had the scan and had the all clear from the Consultant.
Now that's what I have been paying for all these years!  I like it!

So at least it was nothing broken and I had my appointment with my Podiatrist and I have to go back to get 3D scanned for orthotics. (not my foot below - mine is A LOT flatter than that one!)

I have enough time to do this and get used to them and get a decent run of training in before the London Marathon in April.

Over the last few weeks I have been able to get a wee bit of swimming and cycling done with the Tri Club, and although not really enough, it has been enough to keep me slightly active without aggravating the foot again.

I am keen to get back to running and while I am on London on business this week I aim to get in a very easy short run just to break my self back in gently.  I need to shift the 14lbs I have put on since finishing IM Frankfurt.  NOT GOOD!!

The Tri club has been going really well and we have a membership of 30 already within 6 weeks of starting.  The Committee are active and we are close to finalising the Club Kit and have a couple of great partners on board with us also.
Things are looking good.

The malady lingers on and on and on

I am now getting really pissed off.
I have had a sore foot for about 5 weeks now and as much as I have tried to rest it and "tested" it with a few runs and swims and cycles, it is not getting any better.
The only thing that has happened is that the swelling and pain has moved from my big toe to further up the foot to the area between the top of my foot and ankle.
It is swollen, red and friggin' sore.

(See comparison - right foot good, left foot bad. )

I am going to make a very painful decision. (Probably just as painful as my foot) I am going to rest it completely until at least next Sunday.

This will kill me but I can't think of anything else.
Interestingly it feels like my stomach is swelling in sympathy with my foot but unfortunately the swelling in it only seems to increase with rest.

Keep your toes crossed for me.

Interval training. You gotta love it! Don't you?

Monday 15th October 2012

Running
3 X 0.5 mile intervals
(3.20 / 3.18 / 3.22) 0.5 mile warm up & 0.5 mile cool down.

First run in 2 weeks and my dodgy toe is feeling better.
I decided to do a short interval session during my lunch break today and I am pleased that I squeezed it in.
I won't lie. It did feel tough but I knew it would.
This is all part of the effort to run faster and move on from all the long slow Iron distance training. I want most of my runs now to be a bit quicker than I am used to.

My aim today was to do 3 half mile sets each under 3 1/2 minutes with a 3 minute recovery in between.

Mission accomplished and most importantly it is great to be back running and not hurting.

Bring on the hurt.

Nice ride Kermit.

Sunday 14th October

Cycling
01:57:59 / 32.07 Miles / 16.30 MPH / Cadence 86 RPM

My first ride out with the new Lisburn Triathlon Club.  In fact my first club run of any sort.
It wasn't a bad morning and I was looking forward to getting out as I have been restricted to swimming for a few weeks because of the persistent sore toe and I also wanted to get meeting some of the other club members.

It was a good ride and the Latte in Lurgan was nice, even if it was not really needed on such a short run, but nice anyway.

I am really pleased that I managed to hold on to the pace (more or less) and even took some turns on the front of the group.
The Guys are really dead on and there is a good range of experience and I can tell already that if I am able to stick with the group cycles that I will improve, and that is one of my big objectives for this year - to improve my cycling.

I felt sorry for Arran, who punctured early in the ride and had to quit as he could not get it sorted.  It is horrible when you puncture and even more frustrating when you cant get it fixed.

I enjoyed the ride, the company and being part of a club.

Back home and a nice family afternoon to watch the Muppet Movie.  I think I am looking forward to it more than the kids!

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

Monday 8^th October 2012

Swimming

1300M

Back to the Tri club swimming sessions coached by Oliver Harkin.

These really are good sessions as they are structured and focus on improving technique – hence the relatively low distance covered during the session – but this is not about endurance, or even necessarily speed at this stage.  It is about good technique and the speed will hopefully come from that.

There is a big focus on kick drills and it has confirmed to me what I already knew, which is that I literally have no kick.  I make virtually no forward movement with just my kick and am totally reliant on my upper body and arms for forward momentum.

I look around me and people are going a LOT faster than me just kicking and I wonder how the hell I can’t do it, given all the years of running I thought I would have had strong legs.  Maybe this is part of the problem.  I don’t know, but I will trust in the training and keep working on it.

Wednesday 10^th October 2012

Swimming

1300M

Before the training, Arran and I went to meet Powerhouse Sports to talk about kit for the Tri Club.  It was a great meeting and hopefully between Powerhouse and SLS Tri, the other Company I am getting kit samples from, we should be able to start organising kit relatively soon for the club.  I think this will be a big step as the Kit helps people to feel part of something.

Slightly different training tonight as the coach was late to training because of traffic, so Arran “Ironman” McKee took the reins and gave us a few sets to do.  And Yes, he tried to beast us with 6X50 Leg Drills.  Monster!

I used my new Fins for a couple of the sets and the difference is amazing.

I had real forward momentum – not particularly fast but I had momentum at least.

It did feel a bit like cheating having the fins on, but I could also feel a better kick technique coming from it as I didn’t have to worry about my legs feeling like they were falling off and I could just concentrate on getting a good kick from the hips.

I am still surprised at my arm pull being quite strong as I would consider myself as not being a particularly strong upper body type person – but I must be OK as I would say at the moment about 90% of my forward momentum is arm pull and the small remainder is legs.  I need to really improve this.

Finally – the foot injury is feeling a bit better and I am hopeful of a run and bike this weekend. HOPEFULLY!

“Hi, my name is Jeff and it has been 2 weeks since my last run . . . .” 

Runners Anonymous

Crashing through 10,000 and Tri Club Swim

Monday 1st October 2012


Yee hah - the blog has gone through 10,000 hits.  Thanks for reading.

Swimming
1450M

Swim training with the Tri club this evening taken by Oliver Harkin.
This was a great session and it was probably a good way of loosening up the legs after the beating they took yesterday at the South Armagh Warrior Tri, although I think Oliver was definitely focusing a bit more on leg work tonight and it is something I am crap at and need to work on - so this is a good pain!

It is great to get some good structure to my swimming rather than aimless laps up and down at the same pace.

I really hope to improve my technique through the winter with the goal of making me a stronger and hopefully a bit of a faster swimmer next season.

I am pleased at how well i did this evening but there is a lot of water between me and next season.

South Armagh Warrior Triathlon - Sunday 30th September

Sunday 30^th September 2012

 

South Armagh Warrior Triathlon 

 

 

Total Time 00:03:53 

 

“Right! I’m getting back in the car and going home!”

That was my initial thought as I stood looking out over Camlough Lake at about 10.30 on Sunday morning.

It was belting down with rain, it was cold, the waves were starting to build on the lake and the sky was grey heading towards black.  Not a good day to be taking on a pretty tough looking Tri course.

I got back in to the car, turned on the music and waited for more competitors to arrive, or rather SEE if any more competitors would arrive, or whether they had been more sensible than me and stayed at home.

Thankfully the weather started to turn, the rain stopped and the clouds broke up.  The wind didn’t disappear though.  The competitors started to arrive thick and fast too.

So, I zipped up my mansuit and went and registered.

One of things that struck me straight away about this free event (Yes – FREE, how often do you ever hear the words FREE and TRIATHLON in the same sentence?) was the rally friendly atmosphere about it.  Everyone was happy to chat and give a bit of banter.

Once the race briefing was done, the 60 odd competitors got loaded up to make their way to the start of the swim at the far end of the lake.

Getting out to the swim start some 2 miles or so away proved to be interesting and great craic.  We all loaded in to the back and front of assorted vans laid on by competitors and supporters and drove to the far end of the lake.  10 sweaty bodies in the back of a van was interesting and thankfully the wetsuits contained any pre-race nervous odours from polluting the atmosphere.

The Swim

The whole idea of this event as to be fun, not too serious and the swim start thankfully mirrored that and was not one of the usual battering sessions I have become used to.

Everyone got in to the water and once the initial shock of the very cold water passed we were waved on our way.

The number of support boats and kayaks on the lake would have put many other larger and more established Triathlons to shame.  I was glad of the sight of these helpers as the water was completely Baltic and the end of the swim 2.7K away was a very long way off.

I managed to relax in to a steady rhythm pretty quickly and didn’t suffer from any panic attacks in the cold water.  (Did I mention it was cold?)

I guessed that the swim would take me about 1Hr, so I was happy to just grind along at a steady pace.

About 2/3rds of the way through I really started to feel cold all over.  Not just the initial shock of cold but a real sense of coldness right through to my bones.  Interestingly my hands were OK but my feet were completely frozen and severe pins and needles were starting to even spread up to my calves.

I decided to start kicking more vigorously in order to drive some blood their way and it seemed to work – combined with the obligatory wee in the wetsuit.  The passing heat was quickly dissipated.

Rounding the corner of the lake I could see the exit which was probably about 400M away and it seemed to take forever to get there but eventually I managed to pull myself up the slipway in a very pleasing 59mins and 30secs.  Talk about pacing!!

At the top of the slipway was one of the best things I have seen at a Tri.  One of the helpers was handing everyone emerging from the water a big cup of hot orange juice.  It was fantastic and a brilliant idea which really helped to raise the core temperature again.
Off to T1 on frozen feet.

T1

I knew this was gong to be slow (as it always is for me anyway) as my hands and feet were frozen which makes it interesting to strip the wetsuit off and put the other gear on.

I was lucky though and managed to do it in an uncompetitive 7 minutes. Not that I was in a rush as this was not really the purpose of the day.  It was all about the craic – the frozen craic in my case.

The Bike

I had been warned that the bike route would be challenging and it turned out to be so.

Miraculously I warmed up really quickly and my new Mavic winter gloves came in handy (do you see what I did there?) and performed brilliantly.

The bike route lived up to its reputation and the first 10 miles or so seemed to be uphill all the way.  Nothing too steep but just pretty relentless.

At the first downhill into Belleek I got the fright of my life when a big gust of wind hit me from the side and I nearly lost control of the bike at about 35mph. I decided that going fast on the downhill was not as important as being alive for the uphill, so I sat up and took a bit more control.

The route was undulating throughout and the road surface was a bit dodgy at times, but I was impressed with how pretty the countryside is in South Armagh.  A part of the country I don’t know all that well but will definitely be back.

The Marshalls the whole way along the route were really enthusiastic and helpful and I thank them for standing out in the cold to help us.

Up until about 5 miles from home I had only been passed by one cyclist and seen no one else.  At this point I saw someone up ahead and decided that I was going to try and catch him which I successfully did after about a mile, only to be overtaken by 2 others who had sneaked up behind me.  This turned out to be a good thing as I kept them in sight and pushed on a wee bit harder than I would have done if I had not had them as targets.  I passed a couple more people on the way in and rolled down the hill in to T2 feeling pretty good but knowing that I had ridden a tough route in windy conditions and now had a mountain to climb. Literally!

There was a great amount of support in the village as the cyclists rolled in and the runners trudged out.

T2

I had a bit of a challenge locating my bag with my running gear in it which had been transported from the start to T2 in Camlough village.  It took me a minute or two but I eventually got it and slipped on the trail running shoes.  I kept on my long sleeve cycling jersey as I thought it might be a wee bit windy at the top of the mountain.

I headed out of T2 and up the road.  After about 300M the road turned left and up a really steep road which led to the open mountainside.  This road is possibly the steepest road I have done and for the first time in any Triathlon I was reduced to walking because I physically couldn’t run up it.

I walked up the road and at the end of the lane and the start of the mountain there was a water station. This was very welcome.

I reckoned this was about half way up, which meant I had quite a bit of climbing to do on boggy ground to get up to the top.

There was a steady stream of runners coming back down the hill and without exception everyone one of them shouted some form of encouragement at my pained expression heading up the other way.  Easy for them, the y are going the right way.

The climb up the hill was probably one of the hardest runs I have ever done but I manned up and kept on pushing up the hill.

At the top was one of the hardiest souls around.  He had a greeting and handshake for every person making it and also told them what number they were to reach the top.  I was informed I was 38^th.  Pretty happy with that.

I only found out later that he had done the swim, got dried and put on about 10 layers of clothes and walked up the mountain to be the marker at the top.  What a guy.  Pure hardcore.
 
The run down was easier but treacherous at times.  I lost my footing more than once but made really good progress down the way, managing to pass about 4 people going down.

The steep roadway back down to the main road was hell on the quads and I knew I would pay for it the next day.

I kept pressing on and headed for the finish line.

Possibly the best finish line ever as it was inside the beer garden of Doyle’s Pub.
I can honestly say that there cannot be many Triathlons around the world that finish in a Pub.  Only in Ireland!

The Finish

Once finished the real touch of class happened.

I had been looking forward to my medal which looked fantastic as it was adorned with a warrior mask and ranks among my top 5 medals and I was duly presented with it . . . after it had been engraved on the back with my name, time and finishing place by Sean Featherstone, the winner of the event in the amazing time of 2.35.

I was delighted with a 3.53 finish time as I had hoped for about 4 hours. (Although my medal says 3.53, the official results say 3.55 – I’m sticking with the medal time.  It is inscribed there forever!)

On the whole it is a great event with great people and a real challenge of a course.

It was free and the donations from competitors went to a charity of the winner’s choosing.

If anyone is looking for a bit of a beasting to finish off the Tri season, this is the event for you.

I will be back again next year and it is great to say that in the year I became and Ironman, I also became a warrior.

Well done and thanks to all involved.