The Week 20 IM Training Round up - with a soapy hole and added misery.

Saturday 29th March 2014

Cycling (02:49:33 / 44.00 Miles / 15.60 MPH / HRZ2 / Cadence 78)

Where do I start on this one?  Seriously, I’m not sure how best to find the words to adequately describe the misery of this ridetoday.

What started out as a plan to cover 75 miles was fairly quickly dropped and it became a case of just get us the hell home and out of this F’ing wind and rain.

I was joined for today’s Polar expedition by Nelson “The Fall Guy” Shanks, Ian “Big Ring” Pollard and Arran “Wonder Boy” McKee.  To set some context, Ian had been out to celebrate his wedding anniversary the night before and was hung-over.  Arran and I had met up with some of the boys from the club the night before and although not steaming drunk had several shandies and were perhaps a little sleep deprived the next morning.  Nelson was probably the only one who felt in decent shape for the ride.

Arran and I hooked up on the way out to Hillsborough and then met up with the other boys there.  It didn’t start out too bad but within about 5 minutes it was becoming obvious that the continuous drizzle and headwind were going to be a bit of a nuisance – to put it mildly.  The road from Hillsborough to Ballynahinch was an interesting exercise in mental fortitude as we swapped turns at the front every five minutes.  It is amazing how in the short space of 5 minutes you can erase the memory of how bad the wind was and then have a rude awakening as you peel round to the front for your turn again.  Joyous, simply joyous!

Once we finally battled our way though Ballynahinch (where Nelson managed to stay on the bike and not hurl himself to the pavement this time) we made out way out to Saintfield where the humour was really starting to run out now!  We stopped in the gateway to a Church to gather ourselves and eat something and it must have been diving inspiration that caused me to suggest that we ditch the 75 mile plan and go for something much more sensible.  There was unanimous agreement, especially from Nelson who mentioned that he hadn’t been able to feel his Man-Danglers for quite some time.  Strangely, no one volunteered to feel them for him!!

So 75 planned miles was likely to be cut by about 30 miles in one single act of agreement.  Ian looked delighted as he hates this bad weather and to be fair he was hardcore, wearing only a short sleeved cycling shirt and arm warmers.  No wonder he was keen to get out of the torrents and wind.

The whinging among us didn’t subside at any point and once we got to Moneyreagh the climb out to Carryduff really knocked the crap out of me in particular.

It was around this point that I realised that “Wonder Boy” McKee is actually a lying Git!!  “Oh, I hate hills” he squeaked earlier in the ride.  Yeah!! He really looked to be disliking them as he peeled off the front and disappeared up the hill at pace with Nelson engaging the competitive gene and following him, leaving Ian and I to bring up the rear.

The power of laughter became apparent as we headed up a short but vicious little climb out of Carryduff.  I heard the big clunk of missed gears.  My thought was that ‘Big Ring ‘ was going for the small ring and missed it.  The subsequent “For Fu#*’s sake!” confirmed my suspicions.  This expletive outburst made Nelson laugh so hard that he missed his gears too and for once I was the one left chasing Arran up the hill as the other two struggled to gain momentum after the failed gear shifts.

Several miles down the road we stopped at a junction to re-group and we were confronted with something that I have never seen before or wish to again.  It was like a scene from a Sci-Fi film.

‘Wonder Boy’ had turned in to ‘Soapy Hole Boy.’ 

Nelson spotted it first and pointed out the foamy bubbles emerging en-masse from Arran’s chamois on his Arse! Where did they come from?  What was causing it?  Why was Nelson looking at Arran’s arse?  All questions we may never know the answer to but still valid.

What happened next was equally inexplicable and disturbing.  Nelson used his gloved hand to WIPE some of the foam from the padded rectal region and lift it up to show Arran.  DEAR GOD WHY?

I wouldn’t even have touched it with a rubber glove toed to the end of a barge pole!

We had a good laugh about it and all tried to get away ahead of Arranin case the wind rushing past him blew some of the anal suds our way.  We will just have to put it down as one of life’s great mysteries, or else Arran has been drinking Fairy Non-Bio in an effort to clear out his guts after Sufferfest-ival last week.

The rest of the ride was a short procession of misery homewards with a few more hills, wind and rain chucked in just to really demoralise us.

Although we didn’t manage the 75 miles, we had tough miles, tough hills and a couple of laughs in an otherwise humourless day with over 600M of elevation gain.  Good training even if it wasn’t fun.

 
Week 20 Summary
8H 14 Mins

Swim 4700M
Bike 75.03 Miles
Run 10.01 Miles

Slightly disappointing week in terms of overall volume and training time, mostly due to easing back in to it following last week’s Sufferfest-ival and the shortened long ride.

I’m happy though that I didn’t seem to injure myself after the big bike week last week and also that my swimming yardage increased a bit this week

I was pleased with the endurance swim session and my run home from work.  The bike felt reasonably strong too, so it may have been a lighter week but decent enough.

 

That was early!

Friday 28th March 2014


Swimming (2500M / 01:01:29)


Back to the early starts.  In the water this morning at 5.45AM.  Once I got over the shock I actually swam pretty well and didn't worry about drills or sets and just swam.
It was just Stanley and I think we both went pretty well.

Night Riding the brick.

Monday 24th March 2014

Swimming (2200M / 00:59:25)

I really felt like I was swimming backwards tonight.
It was a tough session but I just felt like a big plank floating in the pool and had no real strength and certainly no speed.  It didn't help that I got moved in to the faster lane as there was space free.  It just made me feel worse when I finished a set 150M behind the first guy in the lane.
I ma hopefully going to get in to the pool on Friday morning this week which will kick off my 3rd swim each week as I think I could do with the extra training.

Tuesday 25th March 2014

Cycling (01:09:21 / 19.32 Miles / 16.70MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 80 RPM)

Once again I was Night Rider.  It was nearly 8.30PM by the time Brendan and I hit the road for a two loop ride around the vast metropolis of Lisburn.
We really started to hammer it pretty hard right from the start and my concern about being able to sustain it disappeared fairly quickly as I was feeling really strong on the bike. 
This is the feeling that I have been looking for, and it finally seemed to be with me.  This was a bit of a surprise to me as I thought the weekend would have left me with heavy legs but there was no sign of it.
The route we picked was a good mix of flat, rolling hills, grinding hills and a few twists that we had to accelerate out of.
I am really pleased at how good I felt and this was probably most felt on the Big hill up home.  Normally I'm grinding it out at about 10MPH but tonight I was cruising it at over 13MPH and probably could have gone harder without expending much more energy.

Most impressively of all tonight was Brendan managing not to fall off the bike as this was his first ride with clip in pedals.  Chapeau Sir!

Running (00:15:28 / 2.00 Miles / 00:07:43 per mile / HRZ 2)
Brick Run

My smart idea to make this in to a brick session seemed justified as we headed out straight off the bike.  We were absolutely flying at around 7 mins per mile pace, however as this was downhill it was only to be expected.  the good thing was that both Brendan and I didn't have heavy legs heading out on the run and we re able to hold this pace easy enough.

Things changed fairly rapidly as we turned at the one mile mark and headed back up the hill again.  the pace dropped, the conversation stopped and the breathing got harder and faster.  It was tough coming back up again.  The 7.13 per mile on the way down was replaced with 8.13 per mile on the way back.

I'm still really pleased with the time and the effort that went in to the run and I think Brendan enjoyed it to.

The Week 19 IM Training Round Up.

The Week 19 IM Training  Round Up.

 

Apart from the Sufferfest-ival this was a fairly decent week of training.  Quality was pretty good along with the volumes and my remaining frustration is my lack of endurance on the swim.

Volume was obviously high because of the Sufferfest but run mileage was at it’s highest for some time too.

 

Week 19 Summary

18H 03 Mins

 

Swim  400M

Bike 203.77 Miles

Run 25.68 Miles

I am a Knight of Sufferlandria. Oh yes, I am!

Saturday 22^nd March 2014

Cycling (10:27:10 / 175.03 Miles / 16.70 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 85)

Sufferfest Videos X 10 - Sufferfest-ival.

I never help out any aspirations of becoming a Knight of the Realm but Saturday got me as close to it as I am likely to get in the real world.

As of about 8.15PM on Saturday night, I am a Knight of Sufferlandria.

For those of you who think I have completely lost the plot, I probably have but to explain a little bite more; I along with six of my club mates decided to undertake the Sufferlandrian Knights Challenge, which is to complete 10 Sufferfest Cycling training videos back to back with no more than a 10 minute break between videos.

These range from 50 minutes through to 1Hr50mins in length and are very intense sessions.

So, at 7.15AM in the Assembly hall at Pond Park Primary School in Lisburn, the prospective Knights mounted our steeds and headed for the foothills of Mount Suffer!

It was an amazing day and we had huge support throughout from friends, parents, relatives, club mates and well wishers from our chosen charity which was Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

I was mounted between Ben and Mark which made for an entertaining 12 hours.  Conversation ranged from the deep and philosophical on the political situation in the Ukraine and Crimea to how Ben was going to remove his saddle which appeared to literally have rectally lodged itself within his lower cavity.  Mind you, he actually wasn’t complaining about the insertion and it was hard to tell if he was wearing a smile or a grimace.

Mark on the other hand tried to poison himself with a severe Lindor Chocolate overdose at one point.  This may have been a suicidal cry for help on his behalf to end the suffering, or it might just be that he was a greedy Git and inhaled the box of them just to avoid sharing.

“QUIT!” That was the instruction hurled between Ben and Mark.  “Be the first to quit.  Go on you know you want to!” Neither wanted to back down even though at times the prospect of getting off and walking away was appealing.

Poor Michael and Stevie were stuck on the other side of the line from us and the speaker blaring the mix of Dance / Trance/ garage/ Indie Funk/ Disco / Electric mambo / Country Hot diggidy / death metal music that accompanies each video made it hard to for them to make out all of the profanities that cascaded from Ben’s mouth.  Although to be fair to Ben he applied the pre watershed rule (most of the time) when a child or lady was near by – but the rest of the time . . . . .!

Michael developed a really loud grinding, clunking noise from his knee, ( he said it was his bike but we think it was his knee giving in) and decided to change his bike for something a bit quieter, much to the relief of everyone else.

Stevie went off hard and paid for it a bit towards the end when he had to adopt a one legged pedalling technique for a few minutes as his knee regenerated and like a starfish growing a new leg.  He was almost as good as new and knocked off the last couple of videos as if he didn’t have an artificial knee and hip!  I think he was happy just not to get sunburned today as his usual approach to cycling is to suffer third degree sunburn which lasts a full year.

Arran plied his trade quietly in the middle of the bunch and seemed to just absorb all of the madness going on around him and keep up  a relentlessly steady effort. That was until his wife and 3 month old Son Jacob arrived and the tough shell of Sufferlandrian armour was shed and the inner cuddly Panda was released.  Once they had gone he then was free to unleash something completely un-Panda-like on us.  Unfortunately it come from the bowels of Hell, well actually, the bowels of Arran and this just added to the “atmosphere!”

Poor Ciaran.  This hapless Sod decided to come down for an hour or two and see how many of the videos he could cope with in support of our challenge.  Ciaran has been working hard on the Turbo but had not gone past 1 hour in duration up until this point.

After the fifth video he declared that it was going to prove impossible for him to quit and he was more than likely just going to have to see it all out.  Shortly afterwards his wife and daughter arrived, looking concerned as apparently he had just popped out to get a pint of Vaseline and some Veet hair removal cream! (Don’t ask – but I think he was taking the whole cyclist thing too seriously)

Satisfied that Ciaran hadn’t run off with another Man, the Mrs was happy to leave him to his own devices, which is a dangerous thing to do beside Ben!

The day rolled on and we had great company from many other people popping in and doing an hour or two on the Turbos with us, we had Brendan, Mark, Stuart, Neil do an hour or two and a special mention for Ian ‘Big Ring’ Pollard who came straight from work and hopped on for four full videos and clocked up an impressive 55 miles in the process.  I also had the pleasure of my friends Richard, Paul and Stuart coming down and plugging away for an hour or two as well.

Paul made a couple of insightful observations.  The first of which was that the room was incredibly smelly,(only to be expected given the spray of sweat emanating from each of us) and secondly, as he was almost doused in the aforementioned spray of sweat he sounded impressed as he realised we were actually doing the sessions as full bore and not just cruising through them.

I have to mention the support we were given throughout the day.  The main reason for doing this apart from a desire to shortcut a vasectomy was to raise money for CF Trust, which is a charity I like to support when I can.  We had immense support on the day from the charity and especially Geoffrey. Joanne and Gillian.  All taking a go on the bikes and all realising how uncomfortable a saddle can be!

A massive thank you to my much better half Keara for her support before the big day and especially on the day.  She was there literally from the moment we arrived until the moment we left.  Helping us set up, keeping us motivated, making copious amounts of coffee, (mostly consumed by Ben and Mark) looking after visitors and even going to get the Pizzas that greeted our finish.  Her efforts were as monumental on the day as ours and she may even get honorary Dame-hood status within the Club!

The actual suffering was glorious at times and humour was maintained throughout, except for a notable dark period during Video 6 when humour appeared to get up and leave for a shower, only to return about 30 minutes later refreshed and ready to go again.

Spirits were good throughout the day and by the time we got Video 8 everyone’s legs were beginning to hurt and bums were probably taking on a Baboon-esque appearance under the lycra.  Eight and nine were tough and it was a case of just grind through them, which we did to great relief.

Everyone wanted to hit it hard for the last video which thankfully was one of the shorter ones but no less intense.  It’s remarkable when the finish line is in sight how the human spirit digs deep in to its wallet and pulls out an old wrinkled £5 note of enthusiasm and bloody minded determination.  We all worked really hard on that last one and even managed to knock out some genuinely good efforts and sprints.

The end was massively welcome and was greeted with Dominos Pizza and Carlsberg Beer.

The tired limbs hauled themselves off the bikes and tenderly edged the abused bottoms on to a seat to sit, relax and savour the fact that we had achieved something that less than 200 people in the world have done.  In the process we have raised over £2000 for charity, which WILL make a difference to people with CF and hopefully contribute to finding a cure.

During the day the actual riding time was 10 ½ hours and I covered 175.03 miles and burned 4600 calories in the process.  I went through 3 pairs of shorts, 4 t shirts and three towels.  I probably consumed about 4000 calories and dear knows how many litres of fluid.  It was worth every minute of it!

 

I felt drained but delighted to have achieved such a feat and I know that we Knights of Sufferlandria are bonded forever in the sweat and tears hard earned on wheels of Hell!

 

The long and winding road home and preparing for Sufferfest-ival.

Thursday 20th March 2014


Running (02:06:04 / 14.25 Miles / 00:08:49 per mile / HRZ 2)


The long and winding road is probably the best description of my run home from work today.
Because of doing Sufferfest-ival this Saturday I had to get my long run in this week a bit earlier, so I decided to run home from work.  Unfortunately the run home would only be eight miles, so I had to create a bit of a circuitous route home and that was a bit of a mind bender as I seemed to be doubling back on myself a bit.


The weather once again conspired to kick me in the nuts and I managed to have rain pretty much the whole way home.  Wonderful!


On a very positive note, I set out with a plan to take the run at a very controlled pace and aim for 9 minute miles and keep it comfortable.  I executed the plan perfectly and kept the pace and Heart Rate well under control and in fact I only had one mile split over 9 minutes and that was because I stopped to give someone directions as they were lost.


The last mile or so was good and as I felt fresh I pushed on the pace a wee bit but kept it controlled as that was the objective today.


Job done and I was glad to get in to a hot shower when I got in.


Rest day tomorrow and then the mother of all challenges on Saturday.  SUFFERFEST-IVAL!!!


Along with five of my club mates, on Saturday we will undertake 10 back to back Sufferfest Cycle training videos.  This is a massive effort and will see us in the saddle for close to 14 hours all in and cover around 200 miles on the Turbo trainers.


We are hoping to raise £1000 for Cystic Fibrosis, so if anyone can spare a few £s please donate on:


https://www.justgiving.com/Lisburntriclub-1/

Happy Birthday Ben, eating my body weight in Pizza and hitting the hills.

Tuesday 18th March 2014


Most important thing of all today is that I can now officially feel old. Ben turned 13 today, so I must be getting old when my youngest is a teenager.  Can I take this as an excuse to slow down and take things easy now?  Two teenagers in the house could be a lot of fun now!!
Judging by the amount of pizza that I ate at Villa Italia where we went to celebrate Ben's Birthday I had given up big time, but it was all worth it.


Running (00:33:00 / 4.30 Miles / 00:07:40 per mile / HRZ 2)
Tempo Run


I'm glad I did this run today because it helped to offset the massive calorie intake described above.
I didn't do the 10K run at lunch time as I am trying to protect my legs a bit ahead of Sufferfest-ival this weekend, so I dropped to my usual 4.3 mile route.
It went quite well but was a bit slower than the last time but interestingly this time it was in HR Zone 2 and not Zone 3.  That is encouraging.




Wednesday 19th March 2014


Cycling (00:54:52 / 11.49 Miles / 12.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 72) 445M Elevation
PP Hills X 4


Up and at it early again for the hill repeats.
This week was the step up week from 3 repeats to 4 sets now. Maybe it was the knowledge that I would have to make the climb one more time than before or maybe I was just a bit tired, but my speed up the hill was definitely slower than last week.
It all felt reasonably OK with maybe just the last repeat getting tough towards the end.


Splits for each repeat were 9.14 / 9.04 / 9.11 / 9.32.  Slower but consistent.


Swimming (1950M / 00:56:35)
Endurance session


Arran described this as a plateau set where we would get towards a max effort on repeats and push hard to get off the plateau.
I'm not sure if I got off the plateau or was left dangling by a cord but it felt like a good session and I felt like I swam pretty well, albeit I'd like to feel a bit faster and fresher but there's still time for that to come along.

Thanks very much for the day off Paddy.

Monday 17th March 2014

Cycling (01:07:43 / 17.25 Miles / 15.30 MPH . HRZ2 / Cadence 80 rpm)

You've got to love Bank Holidays.  Thank you St Patrick for all your snake driving and heathen converting and most importantly for getting me off work at this time every year.

To most sane people the Bank Holiday represent a chance to catch up on few ours of extra sleep, especially when the rest of the house is not off and have all gone to school.

Not to the Ironman! Oh no.  This represents a chance to squeeze in some more training when ordinarily I'd have been at work.

Maximising my opportunity I hooked up with Keith out at his place and we knocked out a very satisfying ride on the bike.  A decent route with a bit of climbing (and of course wind) had us take in some of the Ulster Grand Prix route at Dundrod and back to Keith's place for a quick change before hitting the run.

The bike felt good with a couple of tough enough short climbs but I was feeling good enough throughout and had no residual soreness after the longer ride yesterday.

Running (00:59:47 / 7.13 miles / 00:08:23 per mile / HRZ 2)
Brick session

Pretty quickly we got off the bikes and donned the trainers and hit the road for a run.  Unfortunately for me I have not been doing too much running straight off the bike and I know it is something I need to do a lot more of as it worked really well for me last time around.
Within about 300M of leaving Keith's we hit a tough wee climb of less than a quarter mile, but this is where my lack of bricking it showed up.  The heart rate spiked and the hamstring felt more like Violin strings!

Thankfully after about a mile or so, my legs started to feel like they were actually mine again and our pace steadied out.
Now, Keith says he hasn't done too much running recently but he was holding the pace absolutely great and looked strong throughout.  I'm personally delighted that we managed apace of 8.23 per mile and especially as my Heart rate averaged 79% against the 85% upper limit I had set for the run.

Apart from anything else it was great just to catch up again and shoot the shit with Keith.

Swimming ( 00:58:30/ 2050M)
Technique session

No coach again tonight so just our own self discipline to keep us going.
I would up in the lane with Patrick and Nelson and had to try to push on a bit to avoid being continually lapped.  It just about worked.

I'm finding my swimming a bit frustrating at the moment as I am not feeling as comfortable as I know I should and am fighting the water a bit. I keep saying it but I think I'm just going to have to get in the pool another time each week and grind out a long session to build the endurance.  Bit of a bugger but it looks like it'll have to be done.

On the whole a pretty productive day off work.  Thanks Paddy!

The Week 18 IM Training round up and Ian's Big Ring!

Friday 14th March 2014


Running (00:41:59 / 5.27 Miles / 00:07:58 per mile / HRZ 2)


Friday lunchtime run with the boys at work, and the anticipated "easy" run turned out to be a wee bit quicker than anticipated.  They literally can't help themselves!
We slowed it down a bit and settled in to a steady pace until they decided to put the foot down with over a mile to go and started to chase each other down.


Being Captain Sensible, I decided to keep my steady pace and not get sucked in to it.


I am pleased with the average pace and the lower HRZ.  Nice one.


Saturday 15th March 2014


Running (01:00:07 / 7.03 Miles / 00:08:35 per mile / HRZ 2)


OK I admit it!  Sometimes I baffle myself by being stupid.
I've struggled a bit recently with my long run.  Not the actual running but more the feeling of just not being arsed to get out and run for a long time.  So I thought it would be clever to do a two loop route from home so that I could aim for a very even paced run on both loops.
in the words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, " Big mistake, Huge!"


Four miles in to the run I already had myself talked in to quitting at the end of loop one at 7 miles as my legs were feeling pretty heavy.
So what did I do.  I quit after 7 miles of course.


Heavy legs and a complete lack of willpower were the story of the run.  Not planned but these things happen.


Sunday 16th March 2014


Cycling (03:58:11 / 62.10 Miles / 15.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 84)


Time to break out the big miles again.  The usual wind emerged just to ensure some additional suffering.


I have to apologies to Nelson for messing him around on the arrangements.
We were at a friends house on Saturday night and I got home to bed at 2.30 AM feeling very much worse for wear.  I sent Nelson a text saying I would not make the ride the next day as I knew I would be a bit peaky in the morning.
Strangely I woke up at 7.45AM feeling fine and decided that I really should get my arse on the bike and get out as planned.  So after another text to Nelson and ruining his lie in as he thought the ride was off, I hit the road to meet Nelson and Ian at Lurgan.


The whole way to Lurgan was hell.  Straight in to a dreadful headwind and I crawled my way to Lurgan.
Once I met up with the Guys our route was to head through Portadown to Armagh, then through Tandragee (the home of Tayto crisps) to Gilford and back though Lurgan and home.


I haven't ridden with Ian for quite some time and I hadn't realised how he just effortlessly looks like he is grinding out a big gear.  It was great to watch and left Nelson and I in a bit of awe.  He shall forever be known as 'Big Ring Pollard.'


if I thought the earlier wind was bad, the road from Portadown to Armagh made it seem like a summer breeze.  More than once I felt like packing it in.  I genuinely am getting sick of the wind.


Thankfully once we turned off at Armagh, we got on to smaller roads and got a bit of wind behind us, or at least not killing us in to our face.


We hooked up with Nelson's girlfriend Jenna in Tandragee and headed for home.
After Ian dropped off at home and the other guys left me at Moira I hit the Moira Road in the hope that I would get a full on tailwind.  I wasn't disappointed.  I averaged 22.5mph the whole way along the road and it was fantastic to feel like I was really moving at speed.  It nearly made the pain of the earlier headwind worth it.  Nearly!


I'm delighted with the performance on the ride and although I struggled in to the wind, I still rode well and handled the hills well enough when the appeared.


Week 18 Summary

10H 58 Mins

 

Swim 4000M

Bike 100.96 Miles

Run 18.50 Miles

 

This week was another slight step up in the time logged and it was a decent week on the bike in terms of mileage.  The swimming came back up again and the running wasn't bad quality but just a bit light on mileage this week.

The body is feeling pretty good and I have a sense that the strength is building.  I remember this from the last batch of Ironman training and  it's a good feeling when it's there.

Next week is a bit of a funny one as I have the Sufferfest-ival next Saturday.  More to come on that this week but it is going to be horrific.

It doesn't get any easier. YOU just get faster.

Tuesday 11th March 2014

Running (00:46:01 / 6.2 Miles / 00:07:25 per mile / HRZ 3)
Tempo Run

Bloody hell, I really wasn't expecting that.
My usual weekly lunchtime tempo run with Brendan turned in to something a bit special for me.
over the last few months I have been working on my tempo runs in an effort to increase the pace with the aim that it will translate to my longer slower runs being a bit faster too, and for the most part it has been working.

Just before Christmas I smacked out a 10K (6.2 miles) in 47.36 and couldn't quite believe I had done it.  That was a PB for me.
This run was a step way beyond what I had achieved before.

I felt that there may be a 46 minute 10K in me but I thought it would need to be under race conditions to drive it out of me.
I am so pleased to achieve this PB by over 1 min 35 seconds.  That's a big chunk of time for me over this distance.

It certainly didn't feel easy. In fact I felt a bit ill for the last 2 miles but I just kept pressing on with Brendan who did a great job pulling me along.  I think he had a wee bit more in him to go faster but we stuck together the whole way through.

It's a great feeling to know I am getting faster and the speed is coming back.  I'd love to see this translate well to the longer runs now.  I wonder can I go faster on 10K now???


Cycling (00:53:10 / 14.40 miles / 16.30 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 84)

Because we are finally emerging out of the dark nights and wind and rain and beginning to see a strange big orange thing in the sky, we decided to ditch the Turbo session so that people could get out and enjoy some of the nice weather.

Sadly for me by the time I got home from work and out it was dark but nice and clear.
Following on from the tempo run earlier in the day, Brendan and I donned a ludicrous amount of Hi-Viz gear, donned the lights and reflectors and headed out for a quick two loops of the main roads around Lisburn.

I chose a route which kept us on well lit roads but threw in a few challenges in terms of long flats to really drill it, false flats and some proper hills too.

We didn't hang about and the average pace of 16.3 is pretty decent given that we had 200M (650ft) of elevation in the short distance.

It'll be great when the nights get brighter for longer and we can make a regular thing of this.


Wednesday 12th March 2014

Cycling (00:38:40 / 8.94 Miles / 13.90 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 76) 340M Elevation
Pond Park Hills X 3

I was hoping that the blast on the bike last night and the tempo run wouldn't leave me with dead legs on the hill but fortunately for me it went rather well.

Certainly it was the best of my recent runs up the hill and it still felt tough enough but I was moving a bit faster than usual.

Each set up the hill took the following times 8.36 / 8.49 / 8.39.  I'm pretty damn pleased with these times.

Swimming ( 00:58:47 / 2300M)

A decent session in the pool tonight.  I just wish I had been quick enough to complete all of the Arran's set and increase the distance a bit.
However the consolation was hearing Stanley say " you can't be ahead of me, I'm Fu£%*ing amazing!"  And you know what?  He is!

That felt a bit better.

Monday 10th March 2014

Cycling (00:59:57 / 15.52 Miles / 15.60 MPH)

A really decent commute today with Brendan and it was so pleasant to do this on a bright sunny day.  It is so much more pleasant compared to the usual rain and misery.
I even managed to feel pretty strong on the ride home and held a nice steady pace up the big hill home.
It's good to feel fit.

Swimming (1700M / 01:01:30)

A bit of a funny session tonight as we had no coach so just winged it a bit. It was pretty good fun but probably not as tough a session as I could have done with.
The good thing though was the Vertical kicking set.  This would have killed me a few months ago and this time I was doing it pretty comfortably.  It's good to feel some improvement.

The Week 17 IM Training round up. Riding with the stuntman.

Sunday 9th March 2014

Cycling (04:26:06 / 65.92 / 14.90 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 79 RPM) Elevation 786M

Well that was eventful!
Having agreed to meet up with Nelson and head out for a ride of about 60 miles I was hopeful of some decent weather.  The sky was pretty clear, there was no rain but there was a lot of wind.

It's fair to say that the first 35-40 miles were awful.  The route I had chosen was a bit lumpier than I had anticipated and the combination of very strong wind and hills was making this a lot harder than I expected.

Things were getting tough so Nelson being the good man that he is decided to do a stunt to lighten the mood.  Coming out of Ballynahinch he decided to look round for me and at the same time hit the kerb with his front wheel and perform an overhead flip (with pike) and land still attached to his bike on the pavement. What a guy!  All that just to cheer up a mate.
he was like Colt Seavers in "The Fall Guy" - the ultimate stuntman.

Thankfully he wasn't hurt and even more importantly the bike was OK.

By the time we got to Downpatrick we were really feeling the effect of so many miles riding in the horrendous winds and concentrating on not being blown off the bike, which almost happened a few times.

Thankfully we managed to get a bit of a tailwind (or at least less of a headwind0 on the way back and it took a bit of pressure off.

Not sure what happened with the Garmin but it read as over 1000M of elevation but then changed it's mind to over 700m when loaded to the Garmin Connect website.

I was delighted to have Nelson's company on the ride and I think we kept each other going through a hard ride.  Looks like this will be life for the next couple of months!


Week 17 Summary

10H 32 Mins

 

Swim 2200M

Bike 90.76 Miles

Run 23.76 Miles

 

Another reasonably solid week of training. Decent hours and some good sessions.  The long ride and long run this week were both fairly challenging and I'm fairly pleased with how both went.

I am feeling a little bit frustrated at my cycling as I just don't feel like I am seeing any real improvement in speed or strength.  I am still not all that strong on the bike and find climbing really hard, even when it is just fairly ordinary rolling hills.  I just feel like I should be better than I am at this stage.  I don't know if it is just needing more miles in my legs or I need to do something different.

 

My running is going OK but it is not feeling as easy as it was a few weeks ago before I had the two weeks off for the knee injury.  It's not bad but it could be better.

 

Back in the pool and BIG Rats.

Wednesday 5th March 2014

Cycling (01:04:08 / 15.83 Miles / 14.85MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 70)

Not a bad commute to and from work.  Pretty steady either way and I’m pleased with my climb up the hill home again.

Swimming (01:00:00 / 2200M)
Club - Endurance Session

After taking some advice from our Coach Oliver via Facebook to MTFU, as he was on a training Camp in Lanzarote (probably drinking Mojitos at the pool bar while telling the guys to do another repeat up the Mirador del Haria) I decided that I had to get back in the pool and hit it hard.

I’m glad I did.  The session was tough and I think I did reasonably well and even managed in the final set to knock out a 1.47 / 100M and a 0.49 / 50M.

It’s nice to get the monkey off my back about the swimming and hopefully I can build on this.

Thursday 6th March

Running (01:51:34 / 12.80 Miles /00:08:43 pr mile / HRZ2)

The second race of our Club Duathlon Series is on again this weekend and as one of the organisers it means that I am unlikely to be able to get all that much training in on Sunday. So I reorganised by training schedule for the week which allows me to get my long cycle in on Saturday and then concentrate on organising a great race.

The reorganisation meant that I could squeeze my long run in as an extended commute home.  The aim was for roughly 13 miles and to bring it home in around 1.52 and remain comfortable with the pace throughout.

Ignoring some funny looks from my colleagues as I headed out of work clad in Lycra I hit the tow path for the run home.

It was a good run, even though it rained most of my way home and by 9 miles it was difficult enough to see as the light had faded.  Every so often I would get a glimpse of something scurrying across the path.  I tried to keep my mind off the prospect of rats running around my feet and focus on getting back to the Car which was left at the Train station in Lisburn.

Thank goodness I hadn’t read the article below before I was running in the dark with the critters around my feet.  I’d have had a fit if I had seen this sucker on the path.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133818/Giant-rat-killed-pensioner-Brian-Watson-lump-wood-farm.html

I was happy enough with the run and I may have lost a few seconds per mile as I was being careful with my footing in the dark.  Maybe a wee bit slower than hoped but still fine.

 

Hills, coast, catching up with a friend and a free dinner. Not a bad day at all.

Tuesday 4th March 2014
 
Cycling (00:41:40 / 9.01 Miles / 13.0 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 73 RPM) 340M Elevation
Hill Session - Pond Park Road X 3

Hitting the hill again and it felt OK today.  Rather pleasingly each of the sets go a bit quicker as I went along. They were 9.16 / 9.07 / 9.03.

Running (00:57:01 / 6.66 Miles / 00:08:34 per mile / HRZ 2)

It was great this evening to catch up with my good Friend Alex who was over from Germany.
One of his favourite runs is along the coastal path from Holywood towards Bangor, so we met up at the Esplanade at Holywood and went along the path for about half an hour and just chatted and caught up as we went along.

The run just seemed to pass by and surprisingly the average pace was very steady and heart rate stayed low.
Then even better we had a nice bite of dinner in The Dirty Duck.

A great run and catch up and the best thing of all is that Alex paid for dinner.  Cheers mate.

A great run and a no-mo-jo swim.

Monday 3rd March 2014

Running (00:31:49 / 4.30 Miles / 00:07:24 per mile / HRZ 2)
Tempo Run

"That was unpleasant!"  That was my initial thought as I finished my run at lunchtime today.
Brendan and I hit out along the Towpath again and the usual loop round Ormeau Park.
The pace felt hard right from the start and it didn't get any easier.  In fact it sped up and we did a negative split on the run.

I'm delighted that the speed seems to be coming back again in to the running.

Unfortunately that's where the enthusiasm for today stopped.

Once again I bailed out of my swimming session tonight.  I just didn't feel like it.
I need to shake this and get the swimming monkey off my back and get back in the pool.  Simply, it must get better.

The Week 16 IM Training round up. Frozen hands and Fight Club with Tyler Durden.

Monday 24^th February 2014

Cycling (01:04:18 / 15.83 Miles / 14.90 MPH/ HRZ 2 / Cadence 72)
Technique Session

The normal commute in and out of work today.

Vague sense of paranoia as I kept expecting to get a puncture and every bit of rough road surface had me convinced I had a flat.  Luckily none of it came true and it was rather uneventful.  Which is good on a commute.

Swimming (2050M / 00:58:27)

Now, I know that I have lost a bit of swim fitness over the last couple of weeks, but it has been a long time since I have felt so physically stretched in swimming session.

It wasn’t even a long session but I just found the combination of hard intervals and speed work really hard to handle, plus I was in a lane with faster swimmers than me which made me feel even slower.

One particular set almost did for me entirely.  Swimming with bands on and no Pull Buoy.  For non swimmers this me and having your legs bound at the ankles and not being allowed to kick and not having a float between your legs to aid buoyancy.  The net effect for me was basically not being able to swim more than half a length without putting my feet down to try to avoid drowning and a deep rooted fear of the deep end developing as I couldn’t put my feet down there.  Not a pleasant experience and one that showed up my complete lack of core strength to hold up my body.  Really really tough!

I’m not going to get demoralised about it, just suck it up and look forward to eh next session as I hopefully will have gained a bit of strength back from this one.  I better had, as I would hate to think the experience was for nothing.

Tuesday 25^th February 2014
Running (00:32:55 / 4.30 Miles / 00:07:39 per mile / HRZ 4)

Back on the lunchtime Tempo runs.  No Brendan to run with this time as our meetings overlapped at work and we couldn’t co-ordinate a suitable time, which to be honest I thought suited me as I didn’t think I was up to his speed at the moment.

Within the first ¼ mile I was thinking that I had bitten off more than I could chew as I felt horrible running at pace.  The feeling settled a bit after about half a mile, but I never really felt comfortable throughout the whole run.  I suppose though that is the point of  tempo run.  To have controlled discomfort.  Mission accomplished then!

The wind made things a bit tougher but I actually surprised myself by running this loop only 25 seconds slower than the fastest time I’ve recorded on this route.  That was pretty pleasing and worth the discomfort.

Cycling ( 00:53:10 / 17.43 / 19.70 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 92)

Turbo – Sufferfest Fight Club

The first rule of Fight Club…. Is to expect a sweaty pasting!

A really good session tonight.  This video is such a good mix of climbing, power, sprints and recovery.  Odd as it sounds the Tyler Durden in me really got a good kick, and slap out of this one.

 

 

Wednesday 26^th February 2014

Cycling (00:41:55 /  8.94 Miles 12.80 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 74) 324 M Elevation Gain
Hill Session – Pond Park Road X 3 Repeats

“Here we go again” was the thought going through my head as the alarm goes off at 5.45am so that I can get up and get back in to the routine of doing the early morning Hill session on the bike.  It’s fair to say that I hate the idea of the session and always harbour a hope that the reality of it will be much better.

What’s not to like about heading out on to an unlit road climbing over 100M in about 1.3 miles with the odd Lorry for company?  Who wouldn’t love it?

I know that this session is a key one for me and I had left it until this stage of my training to build it back in again as I really want to reap the benefit of the strength that it builds.

So, off I go, into the blackness and knock out three repeats.  Not my fastest or longest set on the Pond Park Road but a good start to getting back in to it again.

My aim is to repeat this each week, gradually building the number of repetitions and hopefully the speed and strength alongside that.

For this week the time for the three repeats were (9.02 / 9.07 / 9.16) – fairly consistent but about 30 seconds off where they had been last year.

Thursday 27^th February 2014

Running (01:07:17 / 8.00 Miles / 00:08:24 / HRZ 2)

Unusually for me, this was a commuting run.  I came up with the brainwave that I would use the commute to work as an opportunity to get miles in and free up my evening a bit.  So, run to work and get the train home.  Save the planet and get fit!  Well get a bit fitter anyway.

I don’t know whether it was heavy legs from the hill session yesterday or the early morning start, but I felt sluggish and the Heart Rate was a bit more elevated than I would have liked. I was still within my HR Zone, but a bit higher up it than desired.

Anyway, it worked out OK and I hauled my heavy legs in to work at a steady enough pace.  Training for the day done by 8AM.  Not too bad.

 

Saturday 1st March 2014

Running (01:41:17 / 12.014 Miles / 00:08:26 per mile / HRZ 2)

 

An early start for the weekend run as I had to leave Ben down to Rugby so I just decided to go for my run along to Tow Path at Lisburn.

It was a beautiful crisp and frosty morning and it really was a delight to be out running.

I enjoyed it and was happy enough with the way it went.

 

Sunday 2nd March 2014

Cycling (03:41:17 / 57.52 Miles / 15.50 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 83)

 

As usual I was looking at the weather forecast and hoping for the best.  Heading out to meet up with Mark I was rewarded with a clear morning and not much wind.  Result!

The route today saw me head over to meet up with Mark and then through Belfast and up the Crumlin Road to the hairpin bend at the top and then along towards Antrim.  Heading along Seven Mile straight we averaged over 23 MPH - even though mark later informed me that it is actually only 6.5 miles long.  Only in Northern Ireland!

Where I thought there was no wind I was very wrong.  on the turn back towards Templepatrick it became clear that the high average speed was aided by the tail wind.  It was a bit of a slog in to the wind alright.

 

Sadly the forecasted rain that was promised arrived bang on time. Things got pretty bloody miserable from here in and the rain, wind and cold started to bite and by the time I got to within ten miles from home I was really suffering.  My hands have never been so sore and frozen.

 

Mark was freezing too and he still had a longer way to go home than me so he decided to crank up the pace and head on home himself.  I think my pace slowed him down a bit and once he cranked it up I think he warmed up and got home safely.

 

Once again, another tough ride on a Sunday.  please bring on the Spring and Summer.

 

Week 16 Summary

10H 40 Mins

 

Swim 2050M

Bike 99.74 Miles

Run 24.31 Miles

 

Not a bad week and the only disappointment was missing the second swim session during the week.  This was entirely my fault and I just was too lazy to do the session.

I'm pleased with the week and my running has come back a little bit and the cycling was decent.  The hill sessions are back again and I'm sure I will start to see benefit from that on my cycling strength.

My biggest week of training time for quite a while and I enjoyed it.