Longest Day (Ironman) 2004 - Carl's thread

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  • JjJj ✭✭✭
    Hah!


    wigglewigglewigglewigglePOUNCE!

    Tumble.

    :o)
  • Update, week commencing 5/4/04.


    Mon – 50 minutes Gym & Swim Masters class (1 hr)
    Tue – 17 mile bike (1hr) & 6 mile run – Brick session
    Wed – 50 minute swim
    Thur – 10 mile run (1hr 30mins)
    Fri – Rest
    Sat – 67 mile bike (4.5 hours), ave speed 14.9mph
    Sunday – Rest

    Total training time – 10.5 hours approx


    A bit of a bitty week in some respects, medium bike on Tuesday was cut short due to heavy hail but got straight out and ran a 10k to make up what shout have been the 2nd hardest session of the week. The run on Thursday didn’t go to well either, should have been 14 miles but I got a blister and after running through with it for 4 miles decided it wasn’t worth making it to bad and cut the session short.

    Longest bike session to date yesterday, again went out with Team MK though there wasn’t a slow group this week and I got dropped after half an hour. I was actually out for 6 hours on my bike but 4.5 was constant riding, had a few beaks, one to dry off and change after 4 hours as again I was pretty wet (feet and arse mainly). Must say my arse and back hurt like hell today, guess I’ll get used to it – doing a 40 mile ride+10k run Brick tomorrow.

    Master class on Monday was interesting, mainly as I was slowest in the pool out of 6 lanes 40+ swimmers, the guys in the 2nd slowest lane were kicking faster than I could front crawl. Im going to go on a 1 day course to improve my technique.
  • carl - dont let the fact that those guys were 100 times better than you, or whatever, put you off - just go for it, give it 80% (or whatever it might be) and train like you've never trained before.... you CAN be one of them, if you put the hours in - just do it!!
  • god knows - i think the idea was, run/cycle/swim a lot and then you'll get good at running cycling and swimming... lol might be a barmy idea though
  • lol Jj sorry for being obstreporous;... there just seem to be two separate schools of thought ...

    one is.. do bugger all training; turn up; try and make it to the end; say 'ooh look at me i can make it to the end of 400metre/half marathon/ironman [delete as appropriate]'

    the other is.. train hard, turn up, compete, do yourself and the event justice

  • Thanks Andy, think ill be in the train hard and just finsih group but will be an equal achievement to anyone who wins a gold in Athens.

    Im not at all bothered to see these fast cyclists and swimmers, know its unlikely ill be as good as a lot of them but with the cycling and swimming groups I just remind myself they are either single sport competitors, been doing it for 5 years or more or arnt training 6 days a week back to back 10hrs+ like me.

    Im really happy with the progress ive made so far and that things are holding together.

    Im actually looking forward to each days training now and relishing it. Seeing people that are better than me motivates me more to just try harder.

    Watched the cycling from Manchester and Olympic swimming trials on BBC2 today, was very interesting and motivational. Might sound funny but I was suprised to see the top uk swimmers are actually only twice as fast as me over 100meters, thought they would have been much faster then that.

    The best thing about being at my level is that it is relatively easy to make time/endurance improvements and you can actually see progress from week to week where as the elite athletes may train for 3 months just to shave a second off.
  • oops forgot to mention.

    Fell off bike again yesterday.

    Right by my front door, trouble was there were about 8 people standing by the doorway of the ajoining terrace, two of them being georgous girlies that have obviously taken tennancy of the house as the 'To Let' sign has changed to 'Let By', the rest were family that had come to have a look.

    Id not seen them before so I cycled up trying to look good, unclipped left foot, havnt a clue what happened next but fell over to the right about 10 foot in front of them.

    Very Embarassing.
  • lol so did i - a screw fell out of my look cleat and when i twisted my foot, nothing happened
  • anyhoo, for the 2nd, are you driving or catching the train across?

    its NW cambridgeshire, near peterborough... about an hour's drive from MK or you can train it to euston and then up to peterboro from kings x (takes about 45 mins and you can book bikes on) and i can pick you up

    bringing your own bikes? i have 1 spare if somebody needs it
  • http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&db=pc&addr1=&client=public&addr2=&advanced=&addr3=&pc=PE73GE&quicksearch=pe7+3ge&cidr_client=none

    right if you go down the road from yaxley where its circled, to the A1m at stilton, down the yellow service road, turn left to holme, turn left again up the white fen road to yaxley - that's 10 miles precisely

    if you go the other way up the red road from yaxley, under the green road and you turn round just at the point where you hit the grey shading of peterborough, thats 6 miles precisely - so two laps and a squiggle is a marathon

    my usual bike route is to do a number of the 10 mile circuits, or alternatively there are good roads stretching off in lots of directions... its completely up to you which you want to do - i suggest we do x number of circuits and then a 10k run
  • oops it went wrong - you need to zoom out 4 times to see the map that makes that description make any sense whatsoever
  • I will be driving over, seen the map and looks good, nice and flat round there I hope lol. I will leave here around 7.30am and aim to get there around 8.30-9.00 if that’s ok or have you any other time in mind?

    I don’t mind what route / bike run combination we do though if you expect me to run a 10k after a 100 mile bike ride it will take me about an hour and 10 minutes and don’t be surprised to see me walking some of it. You’ve remembered im slow havnt you, for a 100 mile ride I guess id be aiming for about 14.5mph ave.

    Spoke to my mate ‘Alan’ at the weekend, hes doing Longest day for the 3rd time and may join us if that’s ok. Anyone else coming Daz? thought you might try and persuade Jj lol
  • its pretty flat - about the same amount of hills as the london marathon (ie a couple of gentle gradual ups, a couple of short steep downs)

    i'm not concerned about speed... what sort of heart rate/cruising speed do you have on the flat out of interest??

    all welcome - the suggested time sounds good to me, too

    i quite like doing the laps, as i can always walk home if i have any sort of minor disaster (and i can keep a track on progress without using a bike computer)

    we can set up my garage as a T2 station... but i have a strict no nudity rule
  • JjJj ✭✭✭
    [snigger]

    that's not what the vicar said...
  • Sounds good.

    If its flattish like London Marathon course I can probably go a bit quicker. Dont know my cadence or heart rate as not tested it, will do a test his week. On the flat I tend to cruise around 18mph I guess and can keep that up about 2-3 hours. I found on my long ride on Saturday that my legs died after 3 hours hut we had set of at a fair knacker and id struggled to keep up for 30 mins over what was quite a hilly route. Need to play around with my fueling a bit more to I think.
  • yep; if you die after three hours, its a bonking moment and down to poor fuelling (or maybe hydration)

    see... that's one of the massive benefits of these long rides, you can experiment with your fuelling needs

    they aren't bad for developing the aerobic systems either, allegedly
  • 'one is.. do bugger all training; turn up; try and make it to the end; say 'ooh look at me i can make it to the end of 400metre/half marathon/ironman'
    you seem to have got the wrong end of the stick here. people are put off enough by boasts of mega training. why not encourage them a bit so they don't feel guilty about missing a session. I agree that to do as well as you can, then the apropriate training with the right rest and nutrition is called for. but this is not about that. it is about completing a 'FIRST'ironman. getting round and enjoying the experiance is the priority here not trying to go as fast as you can.
  • Hi all, training going very well still should hit 14 hours this week,

    I am just starting to wonder about maximising the quality of all the training im doing as though im mixing up the sessions and stuff im not feeling super tired (and hence am adding an hour or so a week). What I guess I really want advice on is there more I could be doing in terms of quality as I just seem to be banging the miles in at 1 pace (slow).


    To give you an example this is what I am roughly doing at present (14 hrs), though the durations/distances will increase about 30-40% by the time I peak in mid June.

    3 x swim sessions (each about 50 mins, 1 endurance slow pace, 1 group lesson / stoke work & 1 interval reps)

    3 x bike sessions (1 long i.e. about 4-5 hours ave 14-15mph, 1 medium i.e. about 2-3 hours ave 15mph & 1 is about an hour of either circuit reps or intervals on a bike in gym, ave 16-17mph)

    2 x run session (1 long 15 miles at present but increasing 1 mile a week, this is very slow e.g. 10min miles with the odd walking break, the other run is about 6-10 miles at about 9min miles – on alternate weeks im combining one of these runs after my medium or long bike session to make it into a Brick session)


    I anticipate to increase my training gradually till it peaks at about 20 hours a week by mid June. The thing is apart from the swimming it all seems very 1 paced i.e. SLOW, though with the distances im having to train at I don’t have any strength/energy to go any faster.

    Advice appreciated.
  • Update, week commencing 12/4/04.


    Mon – 50 mile bike (3 hrs – ave 15 mph) & 6 mile run (slow, ave 9.30 min miles) -Brick session
    Tue – 40 minute swim (intervals)
    Wed – 30 mile bike (2 hrs – ave 16 mph)
    Thur – 15 mile run (2 hr 30mins, very slow ave 10 min miles)
    Fri – 40 minute swim (endurance)
    Sat – 75 mile bike (5 hrs+ ave 14.7mph)
    Sunday – Rest

    Total training time – 14.5 hours approx


    A great week (apart from being threatened with an Iron Bar by some irate motorist while out on my bike Wednesday).

    Tomorrow im off to watch the London Marathon with RW at mile 18, good luck to anyone running.
  • Oh going to look at wetsuits on Monday so I can get on with some open water practice, I only want a real cheap one as im bound to loose a stone or so, and certainly will loose a lot of flab so don’t want to get stuck with one that will be to big for later in the season or next year. Any tips on where to get a cheap one?

    Im going to Total Fitness Nottingham anyway on Monday as ive got a free bike service and also want to look at some gear, maybe a tri suit & other stuff. They did say they may have some of last seasons stock left so ill see what sort of deal I can get though don’t want to spend more than £100 if I can help it.
  • JjJj ✭✭✭
    Carl - second hand.

    And don't think about people peeing in them.

    I'm sure they're washed thoroughly.


    No, really...
  • Carl
    You really do need some faster paced sessions on the bike & the run - quality is more important than quantity.

    I would suggest for running some long interval sessions eg 15 min warm up 4 X 1200 meters (3 minutes easy jog in the break) 15 minute warm down. Should give you an Hour plus, even better if this is done with others.

    For the bike there is nothing better than your local bike clubs evening 10s. With a warm up will give you best part of an hour, and a couple of club 25s will improve your speed endurance.

    For TLD last year my training peaked in June at 14 hours for 2-3 weeks.
  • No No No stop telling the poor guy he needs to do this and that. He is doing well as it is. This is a question of going the distance 'not' going as fast as you can. It would be nice to post a great time first time out but if training for speed undermines the important sessions which are the relatively few long runs and rides it will be counterproductive. people seem to forget what it was like to be going for your first ironman. I know they might mean well but some of the stuff is not neccissarily relevant to Carl. Rant over. I promise not to post on your thread anymore as there are too many conflicting ideas and that will be counterproductive as well. Good luck will LD and remamber its up top what counts. You seem to have that, so I will expect to be looking you up on the results with a time under 14hours.
  • Carl,

    don't bother about what TriBri's telling you.

    As this is your 1st IM. Your limiting factor is going to be endurance. Do as you're already doing, working on your Aerobic engine. Get those long bike rides in. That's what builds you endurance. If you can get off the bike after 112 miles feeling fresh, you're well on your way to becoming an Ironman.

    Check out Gordo Byrns forum for some excellent Ironman advice...

    http://www.coachgordo.com/cgi-bin/config.pl
  • One paced training leads to one paced racing - slow. If you are doing one 75m+ ride per week now you will be easily capable of 112 by July. My point is don't do junk miles for the sake of filling in your training log or clocking up horendous quantities of training hours. By building into the schedule 1 or 2 higher speed sessions per week it will, over time, raise the speed of the long slow distance sessions, meaning you go further in a shorter time and they feel easier.

    Also as importantly they break the boredom factor.

    From the schedule above the endurance is not going to be problem.

  • I value all the comments placed here and Andrew I would certainly encourage you to post as often as you like you have given me so much valuable information.

    Concerning all the comments, I do try and balance what people have said and think ive done ok with this so far. I do tend to agree with the points made by Andrew & LSD but that’s not to say im not taking in what you’ve said Tribar.

    I am actually trying to work at getting a bit of speed into my cycling with a short 1 hour ride a week, I actually use that to try speed reps of a 1/3 mile bike circuit ive found in Milton Keynes, with the running im avoiding speed work as faster paced running has caused me a lot of injuries this year (well it’s the likely cause). Id also like to say whilst im starting to clock up the miles im far from baving the stamina for an Ironman just yet, if youd seen me after my 75 bike ride youd know what I mean and there would have been no way I could have run a Marathon then. Still have 10 weeks solid training to go though.

    Thank you all, and again I really appreciate all the advice, as long as it an opinion its valid and up for discussion, would be boring if we all agreed lol.
  • Ok having read this post im inspired to actually enter the 2005 Lanzarote Ironman,always wanted to do it having seen it twice,the bike and run im ok with but will have to work on the swim.I can swim but not that distance,i have hooked up with an online coach and will start end of May when i come back from Club La Santa,cant believe im doing this must be post London Marathon fever LOL
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