A very satisfying weekend. A PB and a Century to boot.

Saturday 24th May 2014

Roe Valley Sprint Triathlon

This is just another one of those events that I really look forward to each year.  It's superbly organised and generally marks the start of the Tri season.  Last year was a nightmare as I had been injured and hardly swam for 2 months, so a time of 1.33 was not great.

This year was a different story and I was out to put down a bit of a marker and show that I'm not always the slow guy in the Club.

Plus, there was a fantastic amount of friendly smack-talk with my Club mate Ian and good friend Donald.  We were all in the same heat and it promised to be a good tussle.

The Swim
I have been doing pretty well in swimming recently in training and wanted this to translate to a decent swim of around 15 minutes at the event.
As the race started, the pace felt pretty steady and I felt really comfortable.  The only problem was that I was clearly the slowest person in my lane and this would cost me a bit of time ironically as I had to stop a few times at the end of the lane to let them past me.
However, it turned out to be a good swim and I got out of the water in 15min and 02 secs.  Mission accomplished.


T1
The next big challenge, and arguably my toughest challenge is T1.  I am dreadful at this and I hoped to improve on my glacial time.  This wasn't brilliant but it was slightly better than before.


The Bike
To some extent this was a bit of an unknown for me as the last couple of efforts up here have not been great but this time I was feeling good. 
The course here is an honest one.  Generally it is an uphill outbound section and down on the way back.
I worked pretty hard on the bike and managed to pass a few people and in turn was passed by a couple of faster riders.
My goal time was about 41 minutes so I was absolutely delighted to come in at under 48 minutes.  That was 20 MPH average speed.  bloody hell, was that me?


Saw Donald about a minute ahead of me on the bike and Ian was a couple of minutes behind me, so I knew that I needed to push hard to catch Donald, but equally to ensure I stayed ahead of Ian.


T2
That's a bit more like it.  No socks and a few seconds saved as I headed out on the run. 


The Run
The first thing I noticed was that I was heading out of T2 and on to the run and I was running fast.  I felt fantastic and was holding myself back a bit as I didn't want to be over confident and blow to pieces later on.
the feeling didn't go away and at as I neared the turnaround point at half way on the run I was about 200M behind Donald.  I tried hard to catch him but to no avail. I did manage though to put a minute in to him over the 5K.  Ian was a couple of minutes down but also had a very solid run and managed to almost paralyse my hand with a rather energetic High 5 as we passed on the run course. 
To say that I'm pleased with the run is an understatement.  Mile splits of 7.09 / 7.08 / 6.57 per mile showed the strength coming through.  I ended with an average pace of 21.54 and a PB over the 5k distance.  Brilliant.


Overall
I am delighted with the way everything went. Looking back I probably could have made a bit of a time saving in T1 but then again there's not a surprise there.
All 3 components went at least as well as I hoped and in the case of the bike and run I exceeded my expectations.
This is a great start to the season and a signal that the training is going well.


Now I need to consolidate this and get some good quality out of the next 8 weeks training.




Sunday 25th May 2014


Cycling (101.44 Miles / 6:13:47 / 16.3MPH / HR Zone 2 / Cadence 75) Elevation 907M
Long Solo Ride


The long solo ride is a fundamental part of Ironman training. Ironman is very much a solo sport and to get ready for it I think it's necessary to get out and crank out a long ride with nothing for company apart from the inside of my own head, which can be an odd companion at times.


As usual for going long the weather was dreadful.  It rained for probably about 75% of the ride and I won't pretend that it didn't bother me.  It bothered me a lot.  Especially when I was about 30 miles away from home knowing that I was realistically about 2Hrs from home even if I wanted to turn back.


So I banished the negativity from my head and just got on with it.  I did a mental checklist to lift the mood:
Am I tired - NO
Am I cold - NO
Am I wet - YES
Did anyone force me to do this -NO
Will it do me good - YES
GET ON WITH IT!


I worked hard on keeping my head right, keeping the cadence up and maintaining a steady effort and focusing on refuelling at the right times.
These focus points are important because if you think too hard about the distance and the bad weather it's easy to get in to a funk.


By the time I got through to Hillsborough at about 60 miles I was seriously thinking of heading for home and I made the decision to quit. Instead of turning off and following my planned route for the 100 miles I headed straight on.
I immediately regretted it and made a quick turnaround after a couple of hundred metres and  got back on course.


The next 20 miles or so went really well and I reached my turnaround point in Portadown in decent shape and the legs felt fine.
Heading for home I was riding in to a headwind.  Not particularly strong but enough to make the legs suddenly feel more tired than they did 5 miles before.


I'll be honest, from Moira back to home was a slog and that 8 miles felt like 20.  My average speed slowed down a bit and the leg turnover was not as sprightly as it was before.


I eventually made it home and was glad to get in to the shower and wash away the road grime and ease the tired muscles.


I am delighted at how it went.  The bike went really well, although 100 miles on the TT bike made my neck and shoulder muscles pretty sore but that was to be expected I suppose.  I am chuffed at my mental approach and the toughness that I had to exhibit when digging deep and challenging the inner demons. In some ways that was tougher mentally than physically and I'm happy that he average pace stayed up over 16MPH and that it was only in the really late stages of the ride that fatigue set in.


On the whole a really great weekend and decent performances.

A lesson for life. Bet you never expected that.

Tuesday 20th May 2014

Running (00:33:00 / 4.30 Miles /00:07:40  / HRZ 3)
Tempo Run

Out with David and Ian from work. The speedy crew

With half an eye to the race this weekend I wanted to have a steady paced tempo run that would be challenging but not leave me with wooden legs the next day.

After the usual pace fluctuations as Ian tries to slow to a crawl by his standards, we settled in and managed a very consistent set of miles at a decent enough pace for me.

I felt relatively OK throughout, apart from a spike in the pace around the 2 mile mark where we were down to about 6.40 per mile pace.

Cycling (00:52:56 / 11.87 Miles / 13.50 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 69) Elevation 430M
Pond Park Hills X 4

Where did all that heat come from.  It was one of those evenings where the sky is hazy and not all that bright but the atmosphere was heavy with humidity.

After about half a mile I realised the error of wearing a long sleeved jersey.  I was sweating buckets.

Given the upcoming race, I was playing this session by ear a little bit, as I wanted to get in some decent climbing but not trash myself.

As it turned out, I settled for four repeats instead of the usual six, and to be honest I was glad to finish at four as I was doing OK but just not feeling particularly strong.

The repeats were (9.05 / 8.35 / 8.32 / 8.56 – Average 8.47.)  A bit slower than previous weeks but steady enough still.

One thing that was weird was an extremely annoying clicking noise coming from around the pedal somewhere.  Every rotation of the pedal was met wit ha click!  This became irritating after about 3 milliseconds, so you can imagine that after 9 minutes of climbing I was slightly aggravated by it.  

At the top of the hill I climbed off and after a thorough check of the bike I eventually discovered that the end of the rear brake cable which is hidden low on my bike was rubbing the left pedal as it passed.  I simply had to just bend it in and no more noise.

Isn’t it funny how the most annoying things can often be something so small and fixed so easily.  Sounds like a lesson for life there folks. 

(Look at the added value you get from this Blog.  Triathlon nonsense and a roadmap for life.  What else could you want?)

Wednesday 21st May 2014

Swimming (3000M / 01:10:45)
Endurance session

Who needs sleep ayway?  That’s what I was thinking as I sat waiting in the car park at the swimming pool at 5.30AM, after realising that the session didn’t start until 6.00AM!

I wasn’t mad at all.  I was too tired to be mad.  Half an hour of time in bed missed. Doh!

Anyway, once I got in to the pool, things went rather well.  As I have mentioned before, one of the things I think I will benefit from in my swimming is to add longer endurance steady sessions.  This was just one of those sessions.

I did 4 X 750M with 45 seconds recovery between each one.  They all felt good, and I didn’t feel too tired as I progressed through them.

Looking back at my IM training in 2012 – my best 3000M session was 6 minutes slower than this session, so I’m pretty chuffed with the progression.

Running (01:53:05 / 13.00 Miles /00:08:41 per mile / HRZ 2)

The plan was originally for a 17 mile run, however after thinking carefully about it, I decided to go for something a bit shorter this week to keep the legs a bit fresher.

Despite the warm weather I found  the run went quite well.  Not brilliant but not bad.  The pace slowed a bit in the last couple of miles back up the hill to home and my legs did feel tired after the climb up, but on the whole it went well.

I’ve decided to modify the rest of my long runs in the training plan for the 10 week run in toZurich.  

I had originally planned to go up as far as a 21 mile run but I’ve now decided that I will build up a bit slower over the next number of weeks, and go up to 15, then 17, 18 and peak at 19 miles.  I think that will be more than enough.  Especially as these runs will probably be done at sub 9 minute mile pace, which will be substantially above my actual pace on the Ironman run.
I think this should work out OK with my goal to build endurance but not arrive at the start line inZurich completely smoked with leaden legs.

 

Make up your mind legs! Are you tired or not?

Monday 19th May 2014

Cycling (00:59:44 / 15.77 Miles / 15.90MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 78)

Just the normal commute which was a bit busy on the way down so slightly slower.
The run up home was decent enough despite the hard miles yesterday.

Swimming (2100M / 00:57:11)
Technique

The first few hundred metres tonight felt really hard.  I hadn't felt any ill effects from yesterday on my legs when I was cycling but that all changed when I started swimming.  The short kick session in the warm up was so tough.  My legs were burning and I thought I was going to struggle.

Lucky enough as the session progressed we moved on to sets of 5 X 100 at increasing pace and this went well for me. I managed to keep within the limits and felt pretty OK with it too.

Admittedly we only did 2100M so it was a short session but decent quality and made me feel a bit more confident about my pacing ahead of the Sprint Tri this Saturday.

I'm putting it out there that I am aiming for a 15 minute swim this weekend.  That will be my time to get out of the pool, not the run to transition or anything like that.  I will go for it in a controlled way.  Hopefully.

"Not another F'ing hill." at The Etape Mourne and the Weekly IM round up.

Friday 16th May 2014




Cycling (20.67 / 01:20:12 / 16.20 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 74)






A bit of a deviation tonight on the commute home.  Seeing it was such a lovely evening and I wanted to take advantage of the decent weather and have a bit more of a scenic ride home, I opted for the Lagan Tow path route home.




Yes it was beautiful but it was probably not the best idea I've ever had.  Obviously the nice weather had attracted more than just me.  The Tow path was very busy and it was difficult to get in to any sort of decent rhythm, but the sunshine more than made up for it.


It was also a good chance to get a few extra miles done.






Saturday 17th May 2014




Running (02:00:40 / 14.00 Miles / 00:08:37 per mile / HRZ 2)






Do you ever have one of those runs where you just think, "I wish I hadn't bothered?"
The first three miles of this run were pretty awful.  I felt totally lethargic and was lacking motivation to carry on but I knew this run had to be done and I needed to harden up and get through it, so I just kept ploughing on.




Thankfully after a few miles in and things stated to feel a bit better and I got in to a bit of a rhythm and the lethargy dissipated.




I wouldn't say that this was my best run ever but at least it got done and my goal of hitting 14 miles in the two hours was hit exactly. 


Rather like the run on Thursday night, it was humid and warm and I was completely soaked though by the time I got to the car. 






It's a weird thing my running at the moment.  It is going OK but feeling like harder work than it should be, even though my Heart rate is saying I'm within zone and should be OK.  I don't know what it is but hopefully I'll get off the plateau and start improving again.






I have to give a bit of a mention to my Club mate and friend Mark Vaudrey, who knocked out a cracking performance at Ironman Lanzarote today with a great time of 13.42.  This was made even more impressive with a bike split of 6H30 for the 112 hot, hilly and windy miles.  Well done mate.








Sunday 18th May 2014




Cycling (04:10:16 / 56.92 miles / 13.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 68)
Etape Mourne






I was really looking forward to this ride today.  It formed part of my training for IM Frankfurt a couple of years ago and I wanted to have another crack at it again.  It's a hilly bugger of a course and to be honest I was a bit nervous of it as well as excited.






Typically the weather has been great all week and the forecast for today was for rain all day long, which to be honest on a mountainous course could make for a thoroughly miserable experience.






After collecting Nelson early and in what was a first for me, have my passenger eat a very large bowl of Cornflakes and two pieces of toast on the way down in the car, we made it to Annalong and got set up for the ride.






The promised rain had not appeared yet and if anything it was a pretty pleasant morning.  This created the dilemma of what to wear.  After a bit of indecision I opted to just go with my new Castelli jersey and pack a rain coat in my back pocket.  This turned out to be a good move on my part.




At this stage I do need to apologise to Nelson as I was faffing around like a teenage girl and taking far too long to get organised, but we made the race briefing OK and got started with the main bunch.






A couple of miles in and the memories came flooding back to me in a mixture of sweat and lactic acid.
With less than 10 miles under the belt we had already amassed over 1000ft of elevation.


Out other Club mate Gavin had disappeared up the road a long time ago, and to be honest Nelson could have done so as well but he was good enough to stick with me.






The route is beautiful through the Mournes, and if you can stop your ears from pounding with the blood pumping through your head and your eyes from watering at the effort on the climbs long enough to look around, the scenery is stunning.






The weather was still holding up and we got to take advantage of a rather tasty descent and I topped out at over 45MPH.  I did chicken out at this point with visions of my own mortality and the potential impact to my Zurich training if I came off.






The descent down Spelga Dam was a bit more sedate as it is pretty treacherous at the hairpin bend at the bottom.




A highlight for me was the times King of the Mountains section from Rosstrevor to Hilltown, which I completed about 5 minutes faster than I did last time.
The next KOM section was a long climb from the approach to Spelga and all the way up to the top.  It was a complete ball buster.


In a rather sadistic move, the organisers had Photographers at the steepest part on the Hairpin bend.  I didn't have the energy to think of anything clever to do for the camera, other than grimace in pain and concentrate on breathing and not boking.




Once we started the descent off Spelga again, the weather closed in and we got hit with some really thick Mountain mizzle and the roads became pretty slick.  The descent became more like a tribulation and it was far too dangerous to enjoy.  We had no brakes because of the damp and couldn't see a thing.


Unbelievably, it led Nelson to say that he didn't want to do another descent.  This is like Homer saying no to a Donut, Jimmy Savile turning down a kids party  or Nigel Farage marrying a German.... oh wait....  Nelson normally loves his descending.
That's how dodgy some of the descending had become and we had to rein ourselves in a bit on the downhills.




As we cleared what I thought were the last few climbs I was faced another one on the road home and I just couldn't help myself from saying "Not another F'ing hill!"
obviously the effect of fatigue and Oxygen deprivation were hitting Nelson because he thought this was the funniest thing he had heard all day and chuckled for about 5 minutes. 




Eventually we made it back to the finish and after changing clothes and drying off we had a lovely cuppa and sandwiches to restore our humour.


It was one hell of a tough day and my predicted 70 miles didn't emerge but the 1600M of climbing over 56 miles made this an excellent raining day and probably equivalent to a flatter 80 miles.




Big Thanks to Nelson for sticking with me and also to the organisers for a fantastically organised event.  The marshaling was brilliant and plentiful, the aid stations were stocked to the brim and safety was paramount. Well done Pioneer Group.




Week 27 Summary
13H 23 Mins

Swim 4500M
Bike 110.91 Miles
Run 26.2 Miles

Not a bad week of training this week.  Perhaps just a bit light on the swimming but things are generally going OK and I feel like my cycling is coming on a bit more.

Next week is my first race at the Roe Valley Sprint Triathlon and I'm really looking forward to it.

What I've been up to so far this week and a bit of new kit.

Monday 12th May 2014

Cycling (01:02:02 / 15.85 Miles / 15.60MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)

Not the best of commutes hometonight.  For some reason it just was a bit hard to get going and the traffic was busy which didn’t really help at all.  The run in earlier in the day to work had been really good and one of the fastest trips down the road that I have done in a while.  On reflection the massive backpack that I brought home with me didn’t really help at all and the slight headwind on the road home may have slowed me a bit too, but sure it’s all good miles in the Bank.

Swimming (01:00:00 / 2200M)
Technique Session

BLOODY HELL!  What started out as a good session got a WHOLE lot tougher as it progressed.  Lots of descending sets, which basically means getting faster as you go through and with limited recovery time.  That was hard enough, but then Coach Oliver decided to turn the screw and have us do 25M full out sprint repeats.  I managed to do 20 of these with about 30-40 secs recovery between each one.  I surprised myself by holding a decent pace throughout but it was absolutely brutal.  At the end I was completely spent and felt like a man defeated.

Wednesday 14th May 2014

After being in London the previous day and not getting any training done, I was determined to get back on track and do some quality training.

Cycling (17.47 Miles / 01:18:00 / 13.40 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)  Elevation 665M
Pond Park Road Hill Repeats X 6

An early start on the hill and I was looking forward to this session, which is unusual given that it is hill climbing and not the easiest bit of training that I do, however I have been doing pretty well at it over recent weeks and I was optimistic about going as fast as I had done last few times.

Despite it being a lovely morning which was bright and clear with very little wind, I just didn’t feel the lover right from the start and I noticed my pace was a bit slower than I had hoped for.

As the repeats continued, I managed to hold  roughly the same sort of speed and effort until I got the fifth set and things got noticeably slower here on in.

Repeats Five and Six were not really any harder in terms of effort but they were slower.  I’m not sure why this session was slower but I was on my road bike whereas I had been using my TT bike over the last few weeks and it does feel faster, even on the climb, which I wouldn’t have expected.

Maybe they should use TT bikes for the Climbs in the Alps in the Tour de France!

Running (00:48:46 / 6.20 Miles /00:07:51 per mile / HRZ 3)
10K Time Trial

This time is a long way off my best time for 10K at 16.01, but as a training run it wasn’t too bad and the route meant I was running uphill for about two miles at the end, so on the whole I’m fairly happy with the pace and time.  It did feel pretty tough but I’m pleased at myself for hanging in and trying to focus on staying relaxed as I ran.

Swimming (00:53:31 / 2300M)
Endurance session

No coach tonight and fairly low numbers in the lanes, so I decided to ditch the prescribed session and just go for a straight swim broken in to 3 main sets of 750M with a short recovery between each one.

It all went rather well I think. The first 750M was around 16 Mins, which bodes well for my predicted (or hoped for!) time of 15 Mins at the Sprint Tri coming up next weekend.  I was fairly relaxed on this pace and know I had a bit more to give.  The second and third sets slowed a bit but I honestly think that this was predominantly due to a bit of traffic in the lane and they came in on about 17 Mins each.  Still pretty good and I felt very comfortable throughout.  I really do see the value in these longer endurance based sessions and need to do more of them.

Thursday 15th May 2014

Running (00:50:49 / 6.00 Miles /00:08:28 per mile / HRZ 2)

Tonight was just a fairly easy effort run within HR Zone and it was also my first chance to run in what comes close to Heat.  It’s amazing when you are not used to any sort of heat how much harder it feels. I’m sure it was only about 16C but it was noticeably warmer and I was sweating buckets.  Still, it felt comfortable enough and the pace was pretty steady.

The best part of the whole run was when I got back to the house, Keara had started the BBQ and was having a glass of Erdinger Non Alcoholic beer. ( It was a school night after all!)

I had a sip and it was absolutely amazing.  Cold beer never tasted so good.  Needless to say, as soon as I was showered I had a bottle cracked open for myself.

At only 125 calories in a 500ml bottle, I think I have found my perfect recovery drink.

For the rest of this week I plan to do a 90 minute ride, 2 Hr run and then on Sunday I am tackling the Etape Mourne. A 70 mile ride through the scenic MourneMountains in Co. Down.  1700M (5500ft) of climbing in what promises to be bloody awful conditions.  Rain and wind again. Great!

A New piece of kit.
I have struggled to get the right balance of warmth, breathability and rain proofing recently and usually end up being wet, overheated or too bulked up – or a combination of all three!

Having watched the Giro on TV I noticed that in the wet, most of the riders were wearing a Rain Jersey made by Castelli called the Gabba.

After a bit of research it became clear that this is THE best item of clothing on the market to provide a good degree of waterproofing and breathability.

I got mine yesterday and early indications are that it is going to be my go to piece of clothing and it seems like a simple base layer under it will be enough in everything but arctic conditions whilst still getting a lot of breathability.  I also will be bale to wear it in warmer spring weather with no under layer.

I can’t wait to get trying it out more.  Not cheap but hopefully one of the best items I have bought for cycling.

 

The Giro D'Italia has been absolutley amazing and I loved every second of it.

Proud! That's the best description I have to describe how I feel about Northern Ireland hosting the Giro d'Italia.
Yes I have been doing a bit of training over he alt few days but I have sacrificed some training to take time to soak in as much of the Giro as I possibly can.
For the Giro to come to Northern Ireland and race in Belfast is phenomenal and I want to absorb every possible minute of it.
So training was given a second priority and the race for the Maglia Rosa took top billing.

I had great expectations for what the Giro would bring to Northern Ireland and how big it would be and it is fair to say that it has surpassed everything I thought.

The Thursday night Team presentation was absolutely fantastic despite the mixed weather and 6000 people in City Hall shouted their heads off and gave a huge welcome to the teams and the Jerseys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took in the practice session for the Team Time Trial down at the Titanic Area and the opportunity to mingle with the riders in the paddock.  The Giro is so accessible and the ability to get up close to the riders and teams was incredible and I hope that the teams appreciated the enthusiasm and knowledge of the crowds.

Watching the TTT was a real treat and massive thanks to my friend Michael Jenkins who hosted us in the upstairs of his shop Pure Running and plied us with beer and sandwiches over looking the last corner as they turned up to the last 400M of the course.
It was spectacular and probably one of the best views in Belfast.

 

 

Saturday saw the first proper stage of the race and the only disappointment was that the poor weather didn't allow the Antrim Coast to be showed off to it's full extent.
Thanks to Nelson from the Tri Club we secured front line position at the 100M mark on the sprint in to the finish. Ben came with me and  he absolutely loved it, getting to stand right on the barrier and see the full tilt sprint finish only a couple of feet away was a real highlight.

Thanks to Keara we also had a fantastic night with a Pink, Giro themed party at the house and having our friends and family decked out in pink was fantastic.

 

 

  

Sunday was the last chance to see the Giro and quite a few of us from the Club headed down to Richhill to see the Peloton ride through.  We positioned ourselves at the top of the hill and watched as the Breakaway of 5 riders came through followed about 5 minutes later by the full peloton.
It was truly spectacular and the ease with which they went up a hill that would have seen me up out of the saddle was pretty impressive.

The last few days has just made me love cycling even more and to be lucky enough to see a Grand Tour in my home town was pretty special.

The support from everyone and the enthusiasm that the public put behind the event has been truly memorable and done us all proud.  I think it will have surprised people around the world how we embraced it and loved it.
Now that it's over it's a bit depressing but I think we will all have great memories.

Not much happening at the Giro d'Titanic yet but I'm pretty happy.

Tuesday 6th May 2014

Running (00:35:14 / 4.50 Miles / 00:07:49 per mile / HRZ 3)
Tempo Run

This lunchtime I ran with Brendan and David, both of whom are way faster than me, but we kept the pace reasonably sensible and decided to run over towards the Titanic Quarter to see if there was much going on ahead of the Giro d'Italia start on Friday.
The answer was not much other than a few people sorting out the Tented Village area and a few roadside posters and things going up.
The run itself went OK although I was happy to cut off and finish at 4.5 miles rather than tag another mile on.
Pace was pretty much what I had set out to do, so I am happy enough with the result although I would like to feel a bit stronger.

Cycling (01:17:46 / 17.44 Miles / 13.5MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 71) Elevation 660M
Pond Park Hills X 6

Back hitting the hills tonight and once again 6 was the magic number.
Six repeats up the hill with 660M of elevation and it actually went pretty well.
A couple of the repeats were a touch slower than I wanted but I was doing a bit of chatting for some of it with a few of the Boys who came out.

it's amazing to think that I used to think that four repeats was a good effort and I really looked forward to the 4th one as it was a killer but I knew it would all be over soon.
I do feel a lot stronger on the hills and possible even a bit faster, not that I'll ever be considered as a Mountain Goat, but it's all about little bits of improvement.

For the record the splits tonight were 8.09 / 8.02 / 8.27 / 8.14 / 8.28 / 8.42 - that's an average split of 8.20.  That's decent enough.

It's been a while but I've decided to get back on the saddle, in the pool and hit the tarmac.

Well, it's been a long time since I out finger to keyboard and rambled on a bit about what I've been up to.
There have been a number of reasons for this but predominantly down to apathy.
Luckily though for all of my Blog fans I'm back. I'm sure everyone will be delighted to hear that!

So what has happened over the last couple of weeks or so.  Training has been going reasonably well and I have managed to get some reasonable hours in the bank, and although I feel that a  bit of quality is missing, I am happy to take the volume at this stage and build a bit more quality back in again.

Week before last I only managed about six and a half hours but the good news was that I managed to get 3 rides and 3 runs but still no swimming as I was still struggling a bit with the chesty cough and breathing.

I entered the Wetlands Duathlon which was a longer distance duathlon with a 10K run, 40K bike and final 5K run.  I had a plan to stick to for each component and it went pretty much to clockwork.
I finished with a time pretty much bang on what I had hoped to do, so I was pleased with the performance and also my ability to stick to a plan.

Last week was a pretty decent week for volume and I managed to make it back in to the pool again.
My God, getting back to swimming after a month off was pretty dreadful.  The first session almost had me throwing up at the side of the pool.  Wednesday night got a bit better and my early morning swim on Friday went pretty well actually and I set a PB for 2500M.

My cycling is going pretty well at the moment and I am spending more time on the TT bike as I need to get the most out of it as that's what I'll be riding in Switzerland.
It is  very different riding it as it's a more aggressive set up and because it is built for going fast in a straight line it is a bit more twitchy that the road bike. I'm getting more used to it and I am using it at every opportunity, even for the Pond Park Hill sessions.
These Hill sessions have been going really well and last week I did six repeats which was a best for me, plus the average time for each climb was a best also.

I also managed to get in a long ride with the boys from the Club.  The pace was a lot faster than I had been expecting and that was in part down to riding in a group but also just the pace being pretty hot. (for me anyway)  I went through the 90 mile mark in 5Hrs dead with an average speed of 18MPH, but a block headwind on the way back really slowed me down and I finished off the 110 Mile ride with an average speed of 17MPH.  Bloody good for me I thought.

My running is probably  the thing that is bothering me at the moment as I am feeling it is harder than it should be, but I know it might just take a while to get back in to shape with that.
Following the long ride on Saturday I decided to follow up on Sunday with a long run of about 15 miles, however I was obviously fatigued from the long run and cut it short to 11 miles, which were of totally crap quality and a real struggle.  What did I expect really?
running on tired legs is an important part of Ironman training so I better toughen up for future ones and just grind it out.

Week 25 Summary14H 20Mins

Swim 6950M
Bike 160 Miles
Run 21 Miles

 

 

Monday 5th May 2014

 

Cycling (01:04:59 / 17.39 Miles / 16.00 MPH / HRZ2 / Cadence 76)

 

 

Having the Monday off for the Bank holiday presented the opportunity to get a nice wee ride in.  Unfortunately it pissed the whole way and my nice clean TT bike got completely stinking.

It was still a steady ride and went OK.

 

Swimming (2100M / 00:56:32)

Technique session

 

Back in the pool again and thankfully it was a hell of a lot better than last Monday.  A bit of fitness was back again and the main set of 4 X 100M descending went well, apart from the fact that it exposed my lack of "gear changes" between fast and flat out.  I need to work on my pacing a little bit as they are pretty much the same thing.

 

I'm hoping for a decent week of training and am getting very excited about the Giro d'Italia coming to Belfast on Thursday.