less than a week to go now so didn’t do much over the weekend, just a 3 hr bike and a 30min run. All the piranha crew were down racing hell of the west where yet again conor barry beat his brother… seems like it was a great race and all the time are well down on last year. Getting really nervous now about things i can’t control… heat for one. Temp is forecast to be 30s … Planning on breaking down the bike on Tuesday night and getting it packed away. Still worried about using Zipps with Tubs but going ahead and sticking to my original game plan. Devo seems just a nervous as me and is also using tubs. Very light training this week planned, nothing today, running tomorrow and an easy swim on wednesday. Thursday out in Austria going for a 60 min bike and then off Friday and swim at the venue on Sat. Sunday hit the race!
Monthly Archive for June, 2009
Countdown is now on. less than 2 weeks to go and the taper has started. Still very tired, but told that this is normal. also starting to get worried about pretty much everything that could go wrong and about how hot its going to be… at least the temp is up over here, so that will help for training…
all the lads not doing IM are heading off to Hell of the West this friday, very jealous of them…
Bike is all tuned up and ready for action and the new bike box arrived www.bikeboxalan.co.uk - a work of art! love it. Still, starting to question everything in terms of set up … should i use my road bike…. no no.. stick with the plan.
Very tired after the week away and a fairly decent volume this week on top. 2hrs 15min run Tuesday, gym sesison Wed and Friday, Swim session Wednesday, bike Thursday and another 3.8km swim to look forward to this eve. Had to pay Peter pain a visit last night… never fun but got a good rub down and the legs feel much better for it. Planning on doing a sea swim Sat and then 4 hr bike Sun with a 1hr run in the afternoon. All told, I badly need to start the taper.. which is on from Monday… then its just a couple of weeks to the race. Ordered a nice two piece 2XU suit today off Rob in Wheelworx and my Bikebox arrived so apart from getting a couple of spare tubes and the like I think I am just about sorted….
Warm weather training ..6th – 14th June
France was a great trip. 25 hrs solid training as below.
SATURDAY 06-Jun TRAVEL: ? 4easy 30 min exercise of your choice
SUNDAY 07-Jun Swim 2.5k endurance work with 300m (in 50m broken) fast in session. PM Bike 100k easy aerobic pace < 180w
TOTAL:
WEEK N° 1 HOURS KMS/ MILES TYPE:
MONDAY 08-Jun Swim 2 k main set 8 @ 100m leave on 155, Run 45 min last 20 min 30 sec 5k pace/30 sec recover.Stretch
TUESDAY 09-Jun Bike 200k IM pace 180w or so with 3 @ 15 min Tempo 225-240. PM Run 1 hr (40 min easy then Tempo 20 min to finish) /Swim 1.5 k recovery
WEDNESDAY 10-Jun Bike 60-80k very easy recovery
THURSDAY 11-Jun AM: Run 90 min hr 135-145 with 4 @ 5 min 155-170(10k effort) with 1 min RI, PM Swim 4 k with main set 10@200 on 15 sec RI Descend 1-5,5-10
FRIDAY 12-Jun Bike 120k first 40 easy then 80 at 1/2IM pace HR 150+ / Swim 2 k recovery
SATURDAY 13-Jun Recovery Swim or Bike
SUNDAY 14-Jun OFF
Arrived on Saturday and got the bikes all unpacked and ready for action. Weather when we arrived was bad, raining and cold so not looking forward to going out on the bike but in fairness, it cleared up Sunday and just got better and better. Mid to high 20s with clear blue skies.
Sunday was an easy enough spin trying to find out where to go and what to do. We were descending all the way down from Les Gets, through Morzine to Lake Geneva. Sadly the 50m open water pool in Morzine was only opening on the last day of our stay but we found a super pool down in Thonon. Open air, very clean and with views across Lake Geneva to Lausanne. We did the first swim though in a freezing lake up near Morzine…after that all the swims were down in the 50m. Of course we didn’t tell ferg about it till after a very cold swim in the lake… see pic!
The week consisted of just training, sleeping (an NB part of training) and chilling out watching DVDs… (also an NB part of Training)
Big spin on Tuesday - around Lake Geneva and then off the bikes for an hour run… followed by a swim… it was very hard work, running in the heat was good training though. noticed i really was running out of salt so think i need to watch that. Most of the runs were around the lake we first swam in, really nice place, super location..
Amazing to note the amount of super clean open water pools around france, almost every town had one. This is the pool in Morzine from the bridge…
As the week went by the weather got better and better. sad to leave in the end, but it was a savage week of training and being able to sleep in and eat well really helped. Now the IM is only a couple of weeks away and the nerves are really starting to kick in.. …
Which way to the Gun Factory?
Haven’t had access to a pc so will post a proper update soon.
Chilling by Lake Geneva
Heading to france tomorrow am with a gang for a training camp. weather over there is looking mixed at the moment but fingers crossed… it would be nice to sport the rapha gear in the sun. Picked up a lend of a bike bag from C Miller last night. That fella is going well these days and is looking fit. Went home and tried to figure out how best to pack up the bike… not sure what the best method is but i guess it will be figured out. Have a decent training plan sorted for the week.. thanks dark lord. One issue is the swimming will all be taking place in a lake as the open water 50m pool in Morzine isn’t open until next week… that is a real pain as the lake will still be cold. Took it nice and easy last night on the bike.. easy week so making the most of it. Saw Steven Moody out running, for a guy who was giving up tri 3 weeks ago, a PB in Athy has defo got him back onside.
Late writing this one up.. but have just returned from a night away with the wife (1 year married) which reminds me of my first olympic last year at Athy 2008…. id just bought a TT bike for the event .. way to optimistic i guess and during the swim found myself regretting this big style… anyway, bring on 2009 and lots of training and i managed to knock 15 mins off my 2008 time.. run was a huge improvement.. so happy.
firstly, each event is a learning curve and the lesson on sat was that i should have entered the fast wave and not the age group wave which for me started at 11.30 (fast wave off at 10.30). This was a big mistake but you live and learn…
As per last year, the sun was splitting the stones and myself, ferg and conor headed down early and got set up. all the usual gang from Prianha were there as well as some new faces sporting the finest looking racing whips ive seen in a long time. pre race nerves were not too bad and unlike valentia the water temp was actually quite nice…. headed up stream to get to the start and watched the waves head off.. the mistake was that i would have been faster in wave 1 as could have got a good draft off the swim and who knows what would have happened on the bike.. looking at the results, i think i was 6th in my wave, and found myself swimming alone with nobody to draft off… that was a shame. Got out of swim and the hammer went into a cramp.. minute or two to sort..Bike was fine and felt good.. followed by a tough run. part of the run was through a ploughed field and then along a tow path beside the river.. very pretty but not good for passing people.. ran 40.36 which i was happy with… overall 2hrs 15min 51 sec. anyway, conor beat me by over a minute, but managed to pip ferg and beat mood dog. Happy enough.. had to cycle home then (the ironman training!) which was a killer - very hot day and legs dead post race.
Thoughts from event - its very well organised, really good racing and great weather made it super crack.
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