Triathlon Amateur

Final post

2009-05-19T18:54:00.002+01:00

So, the counter above stopped ticking so I guess some summary should be given. So I will start with the most important. Finished 23 overall, with 1:12:04. Finished 5th in my age group and as the best novice. The split times were as follows:

Swim 14:11 (62)
T1 1:20
Cycle 36:46 (47)
T2 1:00
Run 19:03 (13)

Overall 1:12:04 (23)

I guess due to lack of experience I had no idea how to spread the energy among three disciplines. The end result of it was a nice sprinting finish while overtaking more than 6 people on the way. That margin might have been put to swimming or cycling. Head winds played its role and the way back, a bit uphill and against the wind was of some struggle.
Swimming could have also been stronger, kept behind somebody most of the time.the thought of continuous effort for the next hour kept me away from taking the risk.But I see now I should have gone more over the bordery.At least I got some experience and know what to expect next time.

but let me write how it all happened.

So the doomsday started. woke up at 5:55 but went back to sleep to conserve the energy.got up at 7:30 in the end. Cereal breakfast and hit the road at 8. 18km to go, mostly uphill.didn't want to kill myself before even starting to compete so I kept the average on about 20-23km/h and heart rate less than 140. Got there at about 08:50, and happy and smiling heading towards the transition. And there it starts. The marshall didn't want to let this bike in-i was missing the rear brakes,which just stopped working few days before.so I stand there and negotiate as usual when doing shopping etc. but no way he's going to let me in.went up to the techincal support. But anything beside the name had nothing to go with it.no spanners, no brake lines.a few bikes for the presentation and a crew all dressed up nicely with sponsors logos. Few calls and there's the help on the way, but not sooner than in 1.5 what means no help since the transition area is closing in 20mins now.So what i did, went to nearly every person asking if they got a brake line with them.chances like 1to million, so I am smiling, they are smiling. Overall lots of laugh.but the reality was facing me more and more with each minute.but I said to myself, there's no way that I am not going to compete today, after 7 months of training.so I kept going.and all of a sudden, my 'providence' listened to me. A friend of mine, long time not seen, came up to me offering me his second bike. Miracle. I will be able to compete. No matter that not on my 1980s Old Peugeot. Plans have to be flexible, if needs be, it's worth chaging them so that the output is more positive. Put my bike on the rack, left the runners, a cycling shirt w/the number and a helmet.left to watch the first wave competing.Anybody knows the scene when Blade is coming to the discoteque?New Order - Confusion ==) that's what kept me going and building up potential for those 2hrs waiting.20mins before the start went to warm up myself.some running and stretching the calf mussles=my usual friend accompanying me during my trainings. Changed myslef and ready to rock. Some short briefing, got a cap and into the water. After about 200m no major warm up in the water started to be felt. Short crisis, and thoughts I will have to be able to compete for the next hour or so at a coninuous effort.but Lance Armstrong's words from It's not about the bike: 'You can either give up or fight like hell' and repeating some mantras kept me going. Finished, got out of the water, heard a friend of mine shouting to keep going and headed towards the transition.everything was wet after some showers,but it's not going to stop me.shoes on,too much time spent tying them up, shirt put on, the no.on the pins got ripped and only kept itself by the remaining two pins.helmet on and running towards the road.felt really good cycling=overtaken a lot of people.only looked at the speedometer, 1km, 2km, 5km, half done, turn around, and against the head winds now.went as slow as 27km/h in some parts, but the average from the first length kept it overall at 33km/h.and just at the last roundabout.three marshalls standing and talking to each other.nobody pointing the direction.missed the turn.had to go back, somebody overtook me, trying to catch up some cramps got me in both calves.drank some water since no chance to do it earlier, had a regular bottle rather than bidon so had to screw it off w/the teeth.got in to transition.helmet off. Ready to go for the last bit.heard somebody shouting my name, smiled and kept going.also on this bit I overtook a lot of people.saw few friends from the club going backwards already,but these guys rock.1:03 is out of my reach.at least now. I think I got addicted already. Beside a bowl of cereals and windsurfing this is another one to go. At least a good one:)

take care

P.S. will put a picture once it's available

results to confirm available at:

http://www.fingalsprint.3dtri.com/

Weekly Review 13

2009-05-10T15:04:00.007+01:00

And finally the last review before the Fingal Sprint Triathlon on Sunday 17 May. Lots of duties this week, final exams in college so most of the time spent studying. But needed to work out as well. Good to keep the balance and go do some exercising.

Sleep routines maintained. Sleep hours a day on average 05:17. No sleep at all on Fri/Sat. Exam on Saturday morning. new record beaten==> 41 successive hours with no sleep. Getting up on average 5:45, due to 00:00 on Saturday. Otherwise around 6:30. Water intake on average 5.5litres.

10 workouts altogether, 3:05:05, 3071kcal, 63.89km

SWIMMING
=============
no swimming this week, exam on both Fri and Sat. More time next week.

CYCLING
=============
7 workouts, 1:55:21, 1898kcal, 49.89km

mostly college cycling, trips shopping, and to exam hall located 4km from the Campus

RUNNING
============
3 workouts, 1:09:44, 1173kcal, 14.0km

6.05 1km*3@3:40 4.6km 24:53.24 03:35.28avg 184avg

in zone 04:41 03:34.19 1km
hi zone 19:52 03:38.95 2km
lo zone 00:09 03:32.70 3km
00:00.00 4km
average 184 00:00.00 5km
high 208
low 145

calories 925
fat burn 0.12

Comments Huge heart rate lately. hmm... Not to sure if the readings were correct. Felt kind of tired but don't exagerate. Time can tell about my performance. Pretty windy though.

9.05 5km*1@3:50/km 6.2km 29:47.62 183avg

in zone 05:38 5km total 19:06.06
hi zone 22:37 average 03:49.21
lo zone 01:24
1st km 03:43.57
average 184 2nd km 03:50.29
high 199 3rd km 03:52.83
low 143 4th km 03:53.69
5th km 03:45.67
calories 1089
fat burn 0.14
Comments Don't know what's happening and what's the reason. My heart rates are much higher then they used to be on similar training. Felt ok though.

10.05 2km*1@3:30km 3.2KM 15:04.36 172avg

jogging GLE-UAT 0.5 01:49.21 01:49.21 135
warm up 0.2 02:31.49 02:31.49 143
400m 0.4 01:23.63 01:23.63 169
800m 0.4 01:25.24 02:48.87 186
1000m 0.2 00:42.38 03:31.25 188
1200m 0.2 00:41.90 04:13.15 189
1600m 0.4 01:23.85 05:37.00 192
2000m 0.4 01:17.83 06:54.83 195
200m jog - 10s check 0.0 00:10.90 07:05.73 195
200m jog - 60s check 0.1 00:50.27 07:56.00 167
200m jog - 90s check 0.1 00:53.55 08:49.55 164
30s break 0.0 00:41.16 00:41.16 147
jogging UAT-GLE 0.3 01:12.95 01:12.95 168

3.2 15:04.36 172

in zone 02:03 2km total 06:54.83
hi zone 08:34 1st km 03:31.25
lo zone 01:08 2nd km 03:23.58
average 03:27.41
average 157
high 199
low 99

calories 423
fat burn 0.05

Comment I felt pretty well. My old pain in the calfs, ie the bone when running really aches, seems to be on its way back. Hmm... Hoping I will manage to kick its as during the triathlon.

Weekly Review 12

2009-05-10T14:55:00.002+01:00

Back to normal this week. Sleeping routines improved. Exactly 6hr sleep on average. 6:30 getting up time recorded. 4.25 litres of water a day drunk.

13 workouts altogether, 4:43:55, 4234kcal, 70.38km

SWIMMING
===========
1 workout, 1:30:00, 988kcal, 3.58km

1.05 Belvedere School 1:30:00, 3575m, 0.7m/s, 988kcal, 0.13kg fat burnt
300/300m warm up
250/550m 10*25m every30s [20.29, 19.83, 22.49, 20.42, 21.20, 20.10, 20.48, 21.32, 20.94, 21.59]
1000/1550m 1*200@3:40+2*150@2:40+3*100@1:45+4*50@55s [3:10, 2:30.51, 2:38.44, 1:36.67, 1:09.32*, 1:40.49, 1:44.89, 50.00, 50.86, 51.66, that fifty before]
100/1650m recovery
1025/2875m 4*100m@1:45+5*75m@1:25+3*50m@55s+4*25m@30s [1:31.50, 1:36.48, 1:39.72, 1:42.19, 1:13.87, 1:14.58, 1:15.36, 1:16.42, 1:17.62, 46.64, 48.52, 50.90, 24.30, 25.34, 25.16, 24.59]
200/3075m 8*25m leg kick every 50s
200/3275m 4*50m every 1:30 coming back with the head above water [x, 49.24, 51.24, 51.24]
200/3475m 8*25m every 45s fast [21.66, 21.46, 21.67, 22.01, 21.10, 21.69, 22.06, x]
100/3575m 100m recovery

CYCLING
============
9 workouts, 2:12:11, 2256kcal, 54.0km
just college cycling and trip to belvedere school on friday during triathlon session
bike rear axel probably broken again. Need to repair it before the triathlon on 17.05

RUNNING
============
3 workouts, 1:01:44, 990kcal, 12.8km

27.04 3km*1 @3:40
4.2 20:10.44 170

in zone 05:19 total 11:03.63
hi zone 12:00 average 03:41.21
lo zone 02:23

average 170
high 194
low 109

calories 678
fat burn 0.09

30.04 1km*3@3:30, P=90s jog
4.6 24:34.38 03:33.73 179

in zone 05:19 03:28.20 1km
hi zone 17:21 03:36.70 2km
lo zone 01:45 03:36.28 3km
00:00.00 4km
average 179 00:00.00 5km
high 197
low 114

1.05 3km*1@3:50 (TS)
4.2 17:00.89 166

need to take a short break after 2nd km, bad pain in the stomach, after 90s break it was a bit easier to run with but still had it.
in zone 07:06 total 11:38.58
hi zone 11:16 average 03:52.86
lo zone 00:10 1st km 03:52.10
2nd km 03:54.87
average 162 3rd km 03:51.61
high 181
low 132

Weekly Review 11

2009-05-10T14:44:00.002+01:00

Bike working again. I'm feeling better, sleeping 7.5hrs a day, getting up time on average 8:00!!!

6 workouts this week, 3 runs, 2 cycles to town for the swim, 1 swim

SWIMMING
============
24.04 1.5hr, 3650m, 0.7m/s good average, 988calories, 0.13kg fat burnt
breakdown
300/300m warm up
400/700m 16*25m every 30s [21.49, 21.99, 22.89, 23.12, 22.34, 23.12, 23.82, 22.96, 23.58, 23.81, 23.68, 23.75, 24.20, 24.45, 23.57, 23.27]
500/1200m 200@3:15+150@2:20+100@1:30+50@50s [3:08.40, 2:32.37, x, 45.65]
50/1250m 50m recovery
500/1750m 200@3:15+150@2:20+100@1:30+50@50s [3:18.28, 2:38.78, 1:45.74, 49.77]
50/18000m 50m recovery
500/2300m 200@3:15+150@2:20+100@1:30+50@50s [3:24.82, 2:38.69, 1:44.85, 49.44]
100/2400m 100m recovery
400/2800m 150@2:20+100@1:30+50@50s [2:36.86, 1:47.76, 49.49]
400/3200m 16*25m leg kick every 45s
100/3300m 100m recovery
250/3550m 5*50m every 1:30 (41.72, 43.06, 44.14, 43.67, 43.24)
100/3650m 100m recovery

CYCLING
============
just cycle for the training to town.
35:55, 16.1km overall, 756kcal, poor average ==> traffic lights

RUNNING
============
3 workouts, 1:11:51, 1155kcal, 12.4km

21.04 1km*3@3:30, P=90s jog
4.6 25:16.70 175

in zone 09:16 03:29.43 1km
hi zone 15:22 03:33.62 2km
lo zone 00:26 03:31.55 3km
00:00.00 4km
average 175 00:00.00 5km
high 195
low 125

calories 887
fat burn 0.12

22.04 500m*5@1:35, P=90s jog

in zone 12:03 01:31.20 1
hi zone 14:09 01:32.56 2
lo zone 03:14 01:34.55 3
average 173 01:35.50 4
high 196 01:30.49 5
low 123
calories 993
fat burn 0.13
average / 500m 01:32.86

24.04 3km*1 @ 3:50 (TS)==> Triathlon Session, after swimming in Belvedere School & cycling home

4.0 16:57.01 173
in zone total 11:30.95
hi zone average 03:50.32
lo zone

average 173
high 187
low 102

calories
fat burn

Weekly Review 10

2009-05-10T14:41:00.002+01:00

felt sick all week. getting up at nine and sleeping 9hrs a day can say a lot on that. usually about 5-6hrs of sleep and around 6o'clock getting up.

just swimming that week

SWIMMING
============

1.5hr training, 3400m, 0.6m/sec average==> lots of swimming, short brakes 1002calories, 0.13kg fat burnt,

here is that training
150/150m 150m warm up
250/400m 10*25m @30s [20.56,x,22.08, 24.56, 21.63, 22.1, 24.78, 21.93, 22.16, 21.64]
600/1000m 4*150m @2:45 [2.19.14, 2.18.81, 2.23.88, 2.26.27]
50/1050m 50m recovery [1.59.84]
500/1550m 5*100m @1:45 [1:34.49, 1:36.08, 1:37.37, 1:42.86, 1:38.11]
50/1600m 50m recovery [1:42.21]
450/2050m 6*75m @1:20 [1:08.16, 1:09.73, 1:11.90, 1:10.95, 1:13.22, 1:13.45]
50/2100m 50m recovery [2:05.13]
350/2450m 7*50m @55s [0:44.36, 0:45.44, 0:47.13, 0:46.94, 0:47.47, 0:48.67, 0:47.31]
50/2500m 50m recovery [2:21.00]
200/2700m 8*25m @30s [0:22.18, 0:22.01, 0:23.77, 0:22.51, 0:23.79, 0:26.74, x, 0:20.51]
200/2900m 200m recovery
250/3150m 5*50m @1:30 sprint [0:39.03, 0:40.40, 0:40.23, 0:40.66, 0:39.32]
50/3200m 50m recovery
200/3400m 8*25m @45s [x,x,x,x,x,0:20.18, 0:21.10, 0:20.26]

Weekly Review 9

2009-05-10T14:36:00.003+01:00

my bike got broken. tried to fix it once, didn't work. duties in college made it hard to find time for it then. so no cycling that week.

RUNNING

2 workouts, altogether 10.2km, 45:27 of training altogether,

8.04 2km*1 @ 3:40

3.2 15:27.71 165

in zone 05:29 2km total 07:23.48
hi zone 07:44 average 03:41.74
lo zone 02:06

average 162
high 185
low 92

calories 502
fat burn 0.07

12.04 3.5km*2 @ 4:00, Rush
7km route
went to a friend's place. run on the cliffs on the east coast

Weekly Review 8

2009-05-10T14:23:00.002+01:00

Long time no writing. Will try to catch up with posting at least with the weekly reviews.

from 30.03 - 5.04

10 workouts altogether. 3 times running, 1 swimming session, 5 cycles and a squash game.

CYCLING
47.7km around college only. no real training.

RUNNING

1.04 3km*1 @ 3:40, made it in 10:55.
03:10 total 10:55.65
10:00 average 03:38.55
05:05 1st km 03:39.65
2nd km 03:40.60
161 3rd km 03:35.40
191
92

357
0.05

4.04 1km*5@3:30, P=90s jog,
in zone 11:44 03:25.61 1km
hi zone 21:59 03:30.01 2km
lo zone 01:25 03:32.52 3km
03:31.40 4km
average 168 03:27.75 5km
high 194
low 141

calories 1242
fat burn 0.16

5.04 3km*1 @ 3:40
07:41 total 10:58.35
11:57 average 03:39.45
03:00 1st km 03:37.09
2nd km 03:42.66
169 3rd km 03:38.60
192
107

759
0.1

SWIMMING
one session on Friday, skipped the club training, had to go earlier and do my own
3.04
200/200m warm up
1000/1200m 10*100m at 1:30-1:40

Weekly Review 7

2009-03-30T17:41:00.002+01:00

Previous week I overall did 11 workouts, of which 3 were running, 1 swimming session and 7 cycles. It amounted to 65.45km altogether and nearly 5 hours of workout. total of more than 4 thousands calories were burnt - if believed to the heartrate monitor and the VidaOne programme.

SWIMMING
============

I didn't feel that well during that swimming session as compared to last week. After spending a week being everyday to the swimming pool I never felt better before. But it wasn't that smooth this time. I had to skip few goes, mainly due to the cramps that I got all over my legs. Here is the training itself:(x denotes either no measurements or skipping)

200/200m warm up
250/450m 10*25m @ 30s [22.57,19.96,21.31, 19.19, 20.54, 18.81, 20.90, 19.98, 22.10, 19.66]
1000/1450m 4*25m+4*50m+4*75m+4*100m @ 30s, 55s, 1:20, 1:45 [18.50, 18.63, 19.70, 19.06, 42.72, 43.49, 42.42, 44.80, 46.22, 1:10.68, 1:14.20, x, x, 1:38.90, 1:38.28]
100/1550m 100m recovery
1000/2550m 4*100m+4*75m+4*50m+4*25m [1:53.74, x,x,x, 1:16.62, 1:10.66, 1:14.49, 1:11.91, 45.97, 47.88, 49.08, 48.27, x, 22.49, x, x]
200/2750m 4*50m backstroke @ 1:15 [1:15.72, 1:17.93, x,x]
200/2950m 4*50m @ 1:30 fast [41.79, 40.25, 40.81, 39.76]

RUNNING
=========
I had three trainings overall, one during the Triathlon session. Here are the details:

24.03.2009
500m*5 @ 1:35, P=90s jog
warm up [M.-AT] 0.3 01:41.38 128
warm-up 0.2 05:18.60 136
500m 0.5 01:38.78 164
100m jog @ 90s break 0.1 01:30.73 153
500m 0.5 01:36.50 168
100m jog @ 90s break 0.1 01:30.26 157
500m 0.5 01:36.80 171
100m jog @ 90s break 0.1 01:30.5 158
500m 0.5 01:35.57 174
100m jog @ 90s break 0.1 01:30.74 156
500m 0.5 01:32.23 172
100m jog @ 90s break 0.1 01:31.92 163
change of shoes
350m jog on the playground
350m jog on the playground
30s break
warm down UAT-GLE 0.3 01:14.72 164

3.8 23:48.71 159

in zone 11:07
hi zone 09:48
lo zone 02:37
average 159
high 191
low 116
calories 459
fat burn 0.06
average / 500m 01:35.98

25.03.2009
2km*1 @ 3:50
jogging GLE-UAT 0.5 01:55.38 01:55.38 141
warm up 0.2 02:34.22 02:34.22 130
400m 0.4 01:34.30 01:34.30 150
800m 0.4 01:36.72 03:11.02 166
1000m 0.2 00:48.17 03:59.19 168
1200m 0.2 00:47.93 00:47.93 169
1600m 0.4 01:36.73 02:24.66 16916
2000m 0.4 01:33.54 03:58.20 172
90s jog break
jogging UAT-GLE 0.3 01:16.18 01:16.18 167

3.0 13:43.17 03:58.69 159

in zone 03:46 2km total 07:57.39
hi zone 08:17 average 03:58.70
lo zone 01:52

average 161
high 176
low 107

calories 271
fat burn 0.04

27.03.2009
3km*1 @ 4:00 (TS)
400m 0.4 01:37.22 01:37.22 164
800m 0.4 01:36.43 03:13.65 173
1000m 0.2 00:48.97 04:02.62 174
1200m 0.2 00:48.53 00:48.53 175
1600m 0.4 01:36.64 02:25.17 178
2000m 0.4 01:35.99 04:01.16 180
2400m 0.4 01:35.49 01:35.49 180
2800m 0.4 01:32.72 03:08.21 182
3000m 0.2 00:43.25 03:51.46 184
90s break 0.2 01:35.89 01:35.89 148
jogging UAT-GLE 0.3 01:27.62 01:27.62 163
4.0 16:56.16 172

in zone total 11:55.24
hi zone average 03:58.41
average 172
high 184
low 158

CYCLING
========
Saturday & Sunday at work, so no training with the club unfortunately. Mostly college cycling but trip to swimming pool and fro on Friday during the triathlon session.

overall 51.6km and 2.5hrs on the bike.

Weekly Review 6

2009-03-22T19:22:00.002Z

This week was very successful, especially considering the fact that up until thursday I was back home and without the possibility of cycling. Not being scheduled to work on Saturday I had the 2nd chance to attend the cycling session with the club - more in yesterday's post. That made the overall distance covered in all three disciplines more than a 100km which is quite satisfactory for me. But let's get into details:

===========
SWIMMING
===========

I have done a lot of swimming over the last week. While at home I was swimming every day. That mounted to 9.3km this week.

Monday 1600m, 50mins, 0.6m/s overall
100/100m warm up
1500/1600m 5*250m @ 4:10, 50m recovery (3:55.76, 4:09.86, 4:12.75, 4:09.47, 4:07.33)

Tuesday 2100m, 50mins, 0.7m/s overall
100/100m warm up
1800/1900m 6*250m P=50m recovery [3:55.58, 4:02.90, 4:03.39, 4:06.34, 4:08.82, 4:01.46]
200/2100m training crawl, backstroke

Wednesday 2100m, 1hrs, 0.6m/s overall
200/200m warm up
200/400m trial for 750m cancelled [3:13.67]
750/1150m 750m test @ 25s/25m [12:41.88]==> lots of people, lots of stopping & overtaking==> headed for 12:20
50/1200m 50m rec
200/1400m 2*100m @ 1:40 [x,x]
100/1500m training
50/1550m 35m underwater
500/2050m 2*250m @ 4:10 [x, 4:07.86]

Friday 3500m, 1.5hrs, 0.6m/s overall (x denotes lack of measurement)
300/300m warm up
250/550m 10*25m @ 30s [x,x,x, 19.78, 19.87, x, 18.37, 20.48, 20:15, 18.94]
1350/1900m 9*150 @2:45 [2:14.94, 2:18.48, 2:21.00, 2:29.62, 2:24.86, 2:22.36, 2:22.21, 2:22.78, 2:21.06]
200/2100m 200m recovery
250/2350m 10*25 backstroke arrow @ 50s
100/2450m 100m recovery
750/3200m 10*75m @ 1:20 [1:05.92, 1:11.87, 1:13.26, 1:13.14, 1:14.71, 1:15.97, 1:15.61, 1:14.67, 1:14.58, 1:12.29]
100/3300m 100m recovery
100/3400m 4*25m sprint @ 40s [18.61, x,x,x]
100/3500m 100m swim down

============
RUNNING
============
quick reminder (in zone: 129-161, hi zone: 162+, lo zone 128-) a- average, h- highest, l- lowest, c- calories, f-fat burnt)==>can't assure of correctness of the calories and fat burnt

Tuesday 6.2km, 25:19, 14.7km/h overall
in 3:43
hi 20:34
lo 0:59
a170 h186 l136
c653 f0.08

2*3km, P=90s jog in rough terrain
1. 11:21.42
2. 11:15.55

Friday 3km, 12:21, 14.6km/h overall, Triathlon Session, after cycling and swimming in town
jogging GLE-UAT 0.5 01:49.41 01:49.41 150
warm up 0.0
400m 0.4 01:32.15 01:32.15 159
800m 0.4 01:33.61 03:05.76 167
1000m 0.2 00:46.62 03:52.38 169
1200m 0.2 00:46.81 04:39.19 171
1600m 0.4 01:33.18 06:12.37 173
2000m 0.4 01:30.21 07:42.58 176
90s jog break 0.2 01:34.86 01:34.86 157
jogging UAT-GLE 0.3 01:14.23 01:14.23 163

sum 3.0 12:21.08 03:51.29 165

in zone 04:27 2km total 07:42.58
hi zone 07:44 average 03:51.29
lo zone 00:11

average 164
high 176
low 143

calories 308
fat burn 0.04

Saturday 3.0km, 20:00, 9.0km/h
very slow jog on the track
300/300m warm up
200/500m stretching
1200/1700m 3 laps at 2:30
800/2500m @ 1:36
200/2700m jogging
300/3000m jogging home

=============
CYCLING
=============
some trips for shopping etc. during the week

Friday
Triathlon Session - cycling to town for swimming and back afterwards
7km UCD-Belvedere School, 15:00, 28.0km/h
7km Belvedere School-UCD, 15:00, 28.0km/h

Saturday
cycling session with the club - more info in previous post
7km UCD-Rathfarnam Village (club meeting point), 15:00, 28.0km/h
92.2km overall route, 3:15.53, 28.2km/h

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/dublin/381847528025

avg speed 28.6km/h
max speed 49.8km/h
totalodo 523/1631km
calorie 1173
fatburn 0.1

===================
SUMMARY AND PLANS
===================
altogether I had 12 workouts, on which I spent 9hrs and 18mins and covered nearly 140km.
I'm off next week on Saturday so getting ready for my 3rd cycling session with the club. will be interesting. definitely take some bars with me this time:)

Saturday Cycling Session

2009-03-21T16:33:00.005Z

And there's the 2nd time I have the chance to go for the Saturday spin with the club. Today it was a pretty flat session, with the biggest ascent of 3%. The overall distance to cover was something around 80km. Here's the link:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/ireland/dublin/381847528025

I did 100km overall, when the distance to the meeting point taken into account as well.

The spin went well for me up to about 40th km when I had hardly any power for more pedalling, especially when caught going up the hill. I remember my last trip when also after about 40km I couldn't continue going with the group and had to abandon the training. It's only today when I realized what was behind. But I'll write about it later. I waited for the other group, drank whole bottle of water - I don't have that thing on the frame that you put your water bottle - no holes in my red Ferarri. And soon they appeared. I got on the bike for another few kilometers with them - the pace seemed to be even faster then the first group I was with. But going flat and a bit downhill seemed alright. And it was only then, when one of the guys offered me a bar. I have never thought how these things can boost your body and make you continue your training. After 1.5hrs on the bike you've burn something like 1000 or more calories (it's weird that my speedometer overall showed 1173 and the heart rate monitor nearly 4000 - the former doesn't take the heart rate increase when climbing I guess) - that your organism feel like out of fuel. After having a raisin bar and some carrot cake, thanks to the other lad, I felt muuuuch better. And continued the spin. I couldn't keep their pace after another while, and my chain fell so I continued on my own and followed exactly the same route. After another 30km I got back to Dublin. The trip taken a bit more than 3hrs with the average speed of 28.6km/h and a maximum of 49.8km/h.

I find this training successful - I didn't keep the pace with the group though but managed to do the whole training. And additionally got more motivated by the fact that they kicked my ass again:)

And the lesson is to take some bars and bananas next time

Weekly Review 5

2009-03-15T20:55:00.003Z

This week was the busiest ever when it comes to swimming training. I flew home on Tuesday so I wasn't able to do any cycling this week. In order to get even with the training schedule I decided to go to the swimming pool every day. And it worked for me quite well. Missed the training yesterday, but catched up with it going twice today. No triathlon session either unfortunately. However no holidays being planned up until Fingal Triathlon on 17 May so all the remaining triathlon session will be attended.

SWIM

5 sessions, 6.7km.

RUN

5km Test Run = 18:58

in zone 04:40 5km total 18:58.05
hi zone 20:14 average 03:47.61
lo zone 03:12
1st km 03:45.48
average 169 2nd km 03:53.31
high 189 3rd km 03:51.33
low 107 4th km 03:50.05
5th km 03:37.88
calories 709
fat burn 0.09

6km => 2*3km @ 3:50/km

in zone 04:19 total 22:35.22
hi zone 22:23 average 03:45.87
lo zone 01:16

average 153
high 188
low 124

CYCLING

no cycling taken place this week.

Weekly Review 4

2009-03-11T17:23:00.003Z

week no 4 of my training. 12 workouts altogether which summed up to 5:40:37. 5517 calories burnt.
I had one squash game which to vary a bit the training. I have done 74.85km as a whole. No saturday spin session with the guys from the club - I am not going to get the money from training itself so have to get it elsewhere.

RUNNING

I had three trainings,

Mon, 02-Mar 1km*3 @ 3:30, P=90s jog
Wed, 04-Mar 500m*3 @ 1:30, P=90s jog
Fri, 06-Mar 3km*1 @3:50 (TS)

where TS stands for Triathlon Session on every Friday. I should have gone well beyond these. What I am happy with though is the Friday 3km on track. I did it a bit slower than last time, ended up with 11:41.50 and 3:53/km on average. That more than 10s more per km than I usually do. However it was still after somewhat 15km cycle and 3km in water. This week I am home without my 'red ferarri' so the triathlon session will be a bit different. However next week, on the 20th of March I will go for a 4km spin at the end. In the coming weeks 5km at the end of triathon session will take place, hoping to have it below 19:00.

CYCLE

Cycling only around the college took place. Only Monday trip to town ended with having some a bit bigger milage. 60km a week altogether looks pale. Flying back to Dublin on 19.03 so won't have the chance to increase the overall distance next week either. However 23.03 onwards cycles up the hill to Leopardstown will resume.

SWIM

Swimming this week was very pleasent. Even happier with the fact that I didn't have to skip any series (as opposed to last week). The times weren't bad either. x denotes missing information, errors in measurements.
Below is the overall training plan.

200/200m warm up
250/450m 10*25m every 40s [x, x, 21.31, 21.25, 21.07, 21.06, x, 21.88, 22.53, 22.91]
600/1050m 4*150m every 2:40 [2:18.73, 2:30.42, 2:35.81, 2:29.29]
50/1100m 50m recovery
500/1600m 5*100m every 1:45 [1:36.08, 1:42.86, 1:47.62, 1:47.78, 1:42.54]
50/1650m 50m rec.
450/2100m 6*75m every 1:20 [1:12.14, 1:17.81, 1:18.64, 1:18.00, 1:18.90, 1:22.18]
50/2150m 50m rec.
350/2500m 7*50m every 0:50 [x, 48.00, 48.22, 51.64, 54.08, 54.33, 51.41]
50/2550m 50m rec.
200/2750m 8*25m every 0:30 [21.73, 23.35, 23.47, 24.72, 24.60, 23.93, 24.46, 23.66]
200/2950m 200m recovery
200/3150m 8*25m fast every 0:45 [20.87, 19.88, 20.51, 20.30, 22.67, x, 22.55, x]
100/3250m 100m recovery

red ferrari

2009-03-04T07:47:00.005Z

I am happy to present my 25 year old beast that will make me beat that 1 hour and 20 minutes.

it got broken again two days ago. But about to fix it today. Pleeeeeease stay in good shape!!

Weekly Review 3

2009-03-01T22:26:00.004Z

another week of training passed leaving 76 days as the counter above says which translates to 11 weeks. That gives roughly 10 Friday Triathlon Sessions if all of them will take place.

All in all I had 11 trainings this week, 3 of them were running, 6 cycles, where 4 of them were around the campus for lectures, 1 swimming session and squash game:)

SWIM

3.35km on Friday was the only swimming I did during the week. I will be going home for a few days soon so plan to do some more swimming during that time. Anyway, pretty good session on Friday, couldn't keep up the pace at the beginning, but further down the training my muscles started to work properly. Cramps are too often part of my training. But at least now it doesn't happen that often as at the very beginning.

CYCLE

Working this weekend as well so unable to attend the session as two weeks ago. Scheduled to work next week on Sat as well.

No bigger distance covered. Only Triathlon Session taking place on Friday increased the overall distance covered during the week.

RUN

pain in the calves was sometimes unbearable. I had to stop training on Wednesday, on 500m*5 @ 90s jog break. Luckily the pain is getting less disturbing, so hopefully will resume trainings at full pace this coming week.

Triathlon Session no. 6

2009-02-27T23:20:00.003Z

Since I couldn't have done the last session on Friday, 20.02, due to engineering ball taking place, I surely wasn't going to miss this one. So here it is how it went:

SWIM

pretty tough session today. I could have felt while in water that I didn't go training last week (still only once a week swimming session is surely not enought, will work on it). Halfway through the training cramps in my leg made it impossible to swim. Had to skip some 200s. the workout below:

200m/200m warm up
400m/600m 16*25m every 30s [19.18,x,21.56,x,21.69,x,22.34,x,x,22.49,x,22.44,x,22.56,x,x]
550/1150m 200+150+100+50+50rec @3:15,2:20,1:30,0:50 [3:16.55, 2:48.0,1:50.42, 50.68]??
550/1700m 200+150+100+50+50rec @3:15,2:20,1:30,0:50 [50.58cramp,2:15.39,x,x]
350/2050m 200+150+100+50+50rec @3:15,2:20,1:30,0:50 [skipped, 2:33.98, 1:36:15, 53.37]
550/2600m 200+150+100+50+50rec @3:15,2:20,1:30,0:50 [3:21.21, 2:40.49, 1:43.66, 47.50]
400/3000m 16*25m with the thing, just legs, every 45s
250/3250m 5*50m every 1:30 [43.26, x,x,x,x]around 40s
100/3350m recovery

x means that I didn't take the measurement. The break between the swims in series is usually about 5-10s so often it's not measured.

CYCLE

Cycle down from the university campus to the swimming pool in town took a bit this time. Lots of red lights on the way, some of them surely cycled through. But I was watching around more since talking to Garda last time I did so:) Not worth bringing it up here.

cycle 7.7km took roughly 17' which only an average of around 27km/h. However due to all these stops and pretty busy traffic I couldn't do better. Obviously I am not trying to find the reason outside my form, but I am sure I can do better. Cycle back took a bit more than that but cycling a different route. 18 minutes to cover 7.9km with average of only 26.0km/h. Traffic again played its part for sure, but after nearly 3.5km in water I felt a bit tired.

RUN

I am happy to complete a 3km run (4km altogether) in my Triathlon Session. Often couldn't do more than 2kms. The first kilometer though is disastrous, as many of you experienced for sure. This is still new to me - never went running after doing few kms of swimming and cycling. One workout used to be enough. NOT ANYMORE:)
Happy to finish, especially that managed to go well beyond 12:00. usually I struggled to make 2kms at 4:00/km pace.

the breakdown below:

1 jogging GLE-UAT 0.5 02:00.57 02:00.57 151
2 warm up
3 400m 0.4 01:32.38 01:32.38 163
4 800m 0.4 01:32.79 03:05.17 173
5 1000m 03:05.17
6 1200m 0.4 01:33.19 04:38.36 176
7 1600m 0.4 01:33.51 06:11.87 179
8 2000m 0.4 01:33.60 07:45.47 181
9 2400m 0.4 01:32.90 09:18.37 183
10 2800m 09:18.37
11 3000m 0.6 02:15.18 11:33.55 185
12 90s jog break 0.2 04:26.42 04:26.42 144
13 jogging UAT-GLE 0.3 01:17.90 01:17.90 159

4.0 19:18.44 07:28.06 169

in zone 06:03 3km total 11:33.55
hi zone 12:49 average 03:51.18
lo zone 00:17

average 169
high 186
low 130

calories 485
fat burn 0.06

Seeing the purple line below the previous trainings, especially that I was after swimming and cycling already. Priceless:)

take care

25.02.2009 500m series

2009-02-26T19:59:00.004Z

the pain in calves begins to exceed my tolerance barier. I had to stop training in the middle of it due to unbearable pain. I was able to continue, still maintained the 90s jog break pulse level at a reasonalbe level.

here is the breakdown of the training

info dist time pulse

0.4km warm up [M.-AT] 0.4 01:46.16 149
warm-up 0.2 10:57.91 133
500m 0.5 01:29.90 175
100m jog @ 90s break 0.1 01:31.19 162
500m 0.5 01:33.70 173
100m jog @ 90s break 0.1 01:30.78 157
500m 0.5 01:37.23 173
change of shoes 0 02:50.54 143
350m jog on the playground 0.35 02:46.50 137
350m jog on the playground 0.35 02:14.95 151
30s break 0.1 00:37.26 139
400m warm down UAT-XGLE 0.3 01:31.47 160

calves

2009-02-26T18:18:00.006Z

Long time no post. No excuses accepted. I had my engineering ball last friday so have to say that I chose to miss the training on Friday. By far the most important one, where I connect all three disciplines==> cycling down to a swimming pool (rougly 8kms), swim for an hour, cycle back (another 8) and then go for a short run on the athletic track. But surely not going to miss the training tomorrow though.

Weekly Review 2

A bit late with it unfortunately. I did altogether 81km. Could be better. Compared to last week it's a bit of decrease. Didn't attend the cycling session though - working saturday and sunday. It will happen unfortunately this time as well. Well, money is what makes the world spin so have to have a bit of it to stay spinning.

SWIM

no swimming due to the engineering ball on friday. Will go additional session next week.

CYCLE

only around college for lectures. It summed up to 51.5km altogether. Less than 1 training last week. that's surely not enough to make me go that 20km at a good pace. Keep it up next week.

RUN

at least here I did some progress. 5 runs altogether.

date, info, distance, time, in zone (123-162), hi zone (162+), lo zone (-123), average, max, min, calories, fat burn

Mon, 16-Feb 500m*5@1:40, P=160hr 3.5 18:31 11:59 05:54 00:33 156 186 126 298 0.04
Tue, 17-Feb
Wed, 18-Feb 3k*1@11:00, P=90s jog 4.2 22:36 03:51 11:50 06:50 162 189 101 363 0.05
Thu, 19-Feb 1mile TEST RUN==> 5:19.00 3.1 25:00 11:42 06:14 09:58 110 187 106 346 0.04
Fri, 20-Feb
Sat, 21-Feb 200m*5@30s, P=90s jog 3.5 29:27 10:33 15:10 03:44 160 188 119 811 0.11
Sun, 22-Feb 1km*4@3:30, P=90s jog 6.6 37:55 13:57 18:31 04:02 161 193 133 609 0.08

I was happy with running this week.

at the end of the week I started to feel the pain in calves. It keeps growing and growing. To the extent that I was unable to run more on training on wed, 25.02. after 3 500m I had to stop the training. Armstrong's words: Give up or fight like hell didn't help much in that case. I was doing them a lot faster than usually @ 1:30.00 to 1:32.00, and still going back to about 150 after 90s jog. So from my exertion point of view I looked well but the legs just didn't work for me. Hoping I will past through this as soon as possible.

stay in touch

Week 2 Review

2009-02-15T22:50:00.002Z

this week was pretty busy, at least compared to the previous one. Trip to Rome and a cancelled flight made it a bit difficult to carry out all the training scheduled.

RUNNING

This week I did 5 runs altogether (thanks to my girlfriend which forced me to go out no matter how tired I felt). Did 17.9km as a whole. Not much but there's more to come.

CYCLING

121.2km this week is probably the most I have ever done. Thanks to guys from the club and a long spin on Saturday.

SWIMMING

Friday's training was very successful for me. It happened every now and then that I wasn't able to follow all the way through. I had to stop for a second. But not this time. Everything completed and in a nice pace (2hundreds @ 4:10 and 100s @ 1:40 during 4(200+150+100+50) was a good one for me).

looking forward to complete more runs and cycles in the coming week

all the best

evening run

2009-02-15T22:35:00.003Z

just went back from a run. it was the first time I wanted to go for 3km since I can hardly remember.
the track was dry which was perfect for running. Really enjoyed the run, I kept the pace at a good pace, checking 200s and was well beyond the 4'/km pace. the average for that training was 169 and the highest to be 192. the +162 rate was for 53% of the training which was 12:36 out of 23:47. the outline below:

0.4/0.4km 1:51.98 141 GLE-UAT
0.2/0.6km 06:29.45 131 warm up
0.4/1.0km 1:29.97 156 /1:29.97 0.4km 3km BC1
0.4/1.4km 1:33.85 175 /3:03.82 0.8km
0.4/1.8km 1:32.48 178 /4:36.30 1.2km
0.4/2.2km 1:32.47 180 /6:08.77 1.6km
0.4/2.6km 1:31.81 182 /7:40.58 2km
0.4/3.0km 1:30.86 188 /9:11.44 2.4km
0.2/3.2km 0:45.35 189 /9:56.90 2.6km
0.4/3.6km 1:28.38 187 /11:25.28 3km
0.2/3.8km 2:05.20 155 90s jogging
0.4/4.2km 1:56.23 171 UAT-GLE

Good for me since the last time I used to go for 3km when I was younger and training every day. The best I did on the training was something like 11:37 while running 6km with the overall time 23:22. So keep up the pace. You're going the right direction.

Crucial step taken

2009-02-15T14:18:00.004Z

And a crucial click on the mouse was done. I'm in the Fingal Sprint Triathlon 2009 taking place on Sunday, 17 May. The details below.

Make it 80 for the day

2009-02-14T22:34:00.004Z

Just got back from a short run on the athletic track. The first few hundred meters were some pain after doing that 77km this morning. But the longer I run the better I felt. So I continued. Did a short warm up and then just 2km. the intermediate times were the following:

just to explain how do I log the data:

exercise_distance/distance_overall time heart_rate (time_altogether_for_laps) info

0.4/0.4km 01:42.31 0 GLE-UAT
0.2/0.6km 0:57.86 0 stretching

0.4/1.0km 1:28.60 156 /1:28.60 2km BC1
0.4/1.4km 1:32.82 176 /3:01.42 2km BC1
0.2/1.6km 0:46.68 179 /3:48.10 2km BC1
0.4/2.0km 1:33.02 180 /1:33.02 2km BC1
0.4/2.4km 1:31.18 184 /3:34.20 2km BC1
0.2/2.6km 0:44.42 187 /3:48.62/7:36.72 2km BC1

0.2/2.8km 1:24.45 164 90s break jogging
0.4/3.3km 1:40.94 165 UAT-Centra
0.2/3.5km 0:39.75 157 Centra-GLE

time was within 4minutes/kilometer so good enough.

a fair bit of cycling

2009-02-14T17:44:00.010Z

And there came the day when I decided to go on cycling with the club. First saturday off since I don't know when. But I was not going to miss the chance. Especially that my back wheel got broken yesterday - whole axle was in two pieces. What you could expect from a 20+ year old bike?. But somehow I got it fixed - some sellotape do wonders:). So I headed at 8:30 to meet the guys in Rathfarnam, some 7km from UCD. I went at a very slow pace, something like 24-27km/h on average. By the time I got there I didn't know the place at all and where do they meet. Found a different group of triathlon cyclists but none of them seemed from my club. Went on further search. Few calls and got it. Meeting at 9:30 not 9:00. But at least I could get some rest. People started to gather once it was half past nine. Started to look around, everybody's having fancy bikes with carbon whatever frames or forks. Plenty of different apparatus and few bottles of water. I got mine in a bag on my back along with some equipment to unscrew my wheel in case I got a puncture. I don't have a quick release in my oldie fyi. Few decisions to be made and a few minutes later we were on the go.
Just some info on the track. The original route was scheduled to be 85km. the elevation was fairly flat, alternating with 1-2% climb and then similar down the hill. However there was one bigger climb, at about 9th kilometer. It was getting up to 7% for nearly 3km. here is the link to the route, thanks to Anto from the Club:

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/ie/Rathfarnham/605834165391

So today was the first time ever when I did cycling for anything like more than 30km. I started with the beginners group since I didn't know what to expect. However after few kilometers that seemed to be a bit slow. So I went onto to catch the fast pace group. After few minutes of harder pushing on the pedals I catched them. And again I got a bit disillusioned - I don't know why I expected them to be rushing like hell with me having problems to breath. However I could have spoken easily and got to know some new people. But the truth about the group was yet to come. Once we got to the bottom of the hill and started the climb that were I realized that these guys are not here for the first time. First few hundred meters went ok, but further I went I started to feel my legs getting heavier. You just look in front of you and believe that the hill that you can see is the last one. Nothing like that. Once you get to that one another one appears few hundred meters. The climb was killing me. I lost the sight of the fast pace group. I could have only seen one guy left in front of me which I followed. Hurray! I got to the top. The only thing now was a downhill. Without much peddaling easilly going more than 40. Up to 51km/h at a longer fragment. I sticked with the guys now. Mostly flat so going at 35-40km/h. And another hill. Then another. I realized by then that after only like 25km of the route and about 35 altogether for me it might be a challenge to finish it today. My pulse was mostly at 170. And I had two choices: one to go for the next 50 or so kilometers with the group and struggle and probably get left behind a lot and don't know where to go or stop now and go only 35. And that's what I did. I drank a whole litre bottle of water I had in my backpack and went on the road back again. Going on my own seemed to be easier. Even though I was still going fast, at 33-40km/h mostly on a flat surface. after another hour or so I made it finally home.

What I learnt from this session:

You can do much better. I am surely going with the fast pace group again, if I get a chance and have a saturday off. The more I get kicked the better for my motivation.
No bags. it's unneccesary load. Nobody had it, only the least experience cyclist on the oldest bike.
Keep fighing, no matter how tired you are. Tiredness is a state of mind.
get more water and some bananas on the road

Statistics:

tripdist 77.4km
triptime 3:01:43
avgspeed 26.0km/h
maxspeed 51.4km/h
totalodo 244/1352
tempmin 6C

in 2:06:51 [124-161]
hi 0:36:34 [162+]
lo 0:32:48 [-123]
a156 h184 l119

Tell me about yourself

2009-01-30T10:25:00.000Z

Hi there! I'm glad that you made it to this side and I hope that you'll find something that could bring some value to your life. If it's not the case, I would like to take this opportunity to ask for any comment that is on your mind to add below.
Even the worst critique is better than no critique.

Few words on me:

22year old
forth year student of civil engineering
living in Dublin

GOALS associated with this blog:

compete in my first triathlon ever in mid May 2009
& beat 1:20:00 overall in sprint
work out at least five times a week
get up at 6am every morning
post 3 and more times a week

So I've got nearly four months to go, 15 weeks which gives me 100 days to prepare. If I follow 5-trainings-a-week scheme I shall get about 75 workouts. Hope for the best!
I believe that this blog will help me keep up the discipline and do what needs to be done when I won't feel like doing it.

Your help and support appreciated.