So only 9 weeks to go!!

So start off the blog with an update from life! Went for a swim on Wednesday night in Westwood leopardstown. The jeep I drive has been broken into many times so I generally don't leave anything in it but I was coming back from work and had my laptop with me. I thought it was safer in the secured carpark than bringing it in to the changing room with me. Unfortunatley not. Some Bastids got in and took the laptop. I had a lot of useful information on it as well which makes it even more frustrating. However life goes on. Anyone offers you a macbook Air with 13" screen let me know.

Training wise the last 10 days have been pretty good. Following this program gives me a real insight into how those guys who are pretty serious train. I'm not really 100% sure my body would be able to hold up to this volume of training on a regular basis. I feel pretty wrecked but I suppose it's a bit like cramming for the leaving cert at this stage. It probably explains why a lot of people tend to come into the sport of Triathlon for 3-6 years then leave often coming back again. I feel you lose the enjoyment out of it if you train 10+ hours a week. Maybe that's just me.

Comparing figures to last year since I started this program I have already this month only on 20th over reached my running totals for last March. I've almost hit my bike totals and will by the time the month is out. The only thing i'm actually down on last month is my swimming but that's to be expected last year I was in the pool 4-5 times a week coming towards the end of it.

Starting to look forward to lanza now as the chances of finishing it are getting better. I think last month if you had of dropped me onto the course i would have quit around 120k into the bike. Now I think I might get a bit further and i've still 9 weeks to get a bit fitter again.

10 Weeks out from Ironman.

So I did my first week of the training plan. Again first time actually following a plan. It made training a bit more interesting. Most of my runs would be for example 50 minute run and i'd do it at my own pace not too hard not too easy. This time I had to do 6 5minute hill repeats, I really enjoyed it. Of course it was hard but the time flew by and it was great crack. I did them up in Glen Of The Downs woods where I used to train years ago during off season in Rugby when I was actually pretty fit, so it was great to be back up there.

Didn't do a huge amount of swimming this week. I suppose I'm not really too worried about the swim this year. I'm not going to chase sub 60 as I gave that a real crack last year and didn't do it so I reckon with a little bit of training I'll still get out of the water in under 75 minutes. The big difference that i'm hoping to make this year is to knock at least an hour off my overall time. The obvious target is the run at it took me 5hours 50mins there's a lot of room for improvement there. I'm not sure I can go much faster on the bike course it's not made for someone as big as me!!

So I managed 4 runs this week and 3 bikes it's possibly been my best week ever. I was supposed to run for 2:30 on Sunday but I got back to the car after 2 hours and couldn't get going again once I stopped. This week I'm supposed to do an "Ironman Day". It involves a 3k swim and then stay off your feet for at least 90 minutes get on the bike for 5 hours then off your feet for 90 minutes and a 2 hour 30minute run. It might break me.

11 Weeks out from Ironman lanza

I had hoped I'd be in a much better place this time around. However training has really taken a backward step the last few weeks as Life has gotten in the way. In general Feb wasn't a good month training wise. I wouldn't call it a right off but it wasn't great.

Last weekend we got out to Bohermeen to do a stand at the event and it was great to meet so many people and loads of the guys all got pb's on what was a very tough day for it. Miserable conditions at the start and it did ease off a little through the race but was tough starting a race with a serious wind in your face and rain belting down. Our own Mark Horan from the Ashtown store managed a PB and came home in the top 10.

So what have I been doing since I last updated the blog just prior to Christmas. Well I lost focus a little in January as I signed up with Lisa Howley and a few others to run 2014 Kilometers in 2014. It only works out at 5.5k a day. However I went on a bit of a running streak in January. This then ended when I signed up for "The Tour of Sufferlandia" on trainer road. You had 6 days of cycling sometimes it was only an hour or two but it was so intense that I really found it hard to recover the next day. It started on the Sunday and ran for a week. I actually got to the Saturday but I would have had to do one 2 hour session in the morning and then a 2 hour in the evening to have it completed so ended up pulling out a day early.

I sort of drifted through Feb. Then got to March and realised that I was way off where I needed to be. The running was prob the one thing I thought was going ok however when I tested myself over 21k I thought I'd do an easy enough pace and come in at 1:45 feeling pretty fresh however I came in at 1:48 feeling like I had given it everything.

So hit the panic button and decided for the first time in my stellar Ironman career to download a training plan. So had a look at a few different options lots of them didn't appeal to me because they were 34 weeks long. I eventually found one that was only 12 weeks in length (i'd have to start on week 2), the other major problem was it said sub 9:30 training plan. Now seeing as I've never broken 14hours in 5 attempts going sub 9:30 seemed a bit fanciful. I thought if I'm going to pay for something I might as well see what sort of training these guys do. The answer is a lot. There's no real rest day as such and when I usually consider a balanced week is if I did two sessions of each discipline there are many days when you are doing all three in one day. In fact I think most days on the program involve all three at some point. I'll give it a go I can't see myself sticking to this level of training. It works out at between 15 and 20 hours a week I think i'd be too wrecked to stay with that.

I'll report back next week.

Damo.