Damian's Training Blog
Training for IM France

Slight change of plan.

I’ve changed around my training a bit. Instead of doing 3 of each discipline a week I’m going to do a swim focus week bike focus week then run focus week then rest and test.

So I started with the swim focus and managed to do 4 swims. Unfortunatley I didn’t get a run in at all,I even missed my Kilcoole run which I haven’t missed since 2010! but did get on the bike 3 times so it wasn’t too bad.

I’ve been doing a lot of cycling but seem to be getting worse at it. Went out with Paddy Trevor John Darcy and John Keogh. I got dropped after about 30 minutes which was pretty embrarassing,  I stayed away from training until today (Tuesday). So I was back on the bike today with David Klasse Paddy Martin, Razor Ryan and John Darcy. Was hanging on for a while until it was my time up the front, spoke to paddy Martin and he started telling me about the time he was out with Stephen Roche in between his Italy win and Tour De France. That killed me and I just dropped right back, managed to stay with them and do a bit of time up the front but not much.

I’m hoping that when I get my bike set up it might speed me up a bit cause at the moment my bike sucks.

Missed a week.

Had to go to a tradeshow in Germany and sort of missed a week. Started a bit late this week also which was essentially my Rest Week.

Did my first bit of exercise on Wed’s which was a Kilcoole AC track session. We did a one mile time trial, it took me 6mins 20 seconds. I had no idea how fast I could do one but I presumed I could run under 5 minutes, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. 6 mins 20 had me pretty wrecked. There were other parts to the track session but that was the main thing, I was pretty wrecked on Thursday morning.

Got down to Ashford and John and Paddy were both there. Also me a guy called Trevor didn’t get to talk to him much as he was bombing along at the front, we did our usually loop which usually takes us 3- 3:30 hours. With Trevor pulling us along we did it in 2:30. I was wrecked, so wrecked I took a rest day on Friday!!

Saturday we went out with 5 guys who are all doing Ironman France, there were meant to be a few more of us but I was so busy during the week I never got around to getting them out too. It was a much nicer pace, two of the guys were doing Heart Rate based training so we were taking it pretty handy, nothing like crazy Trevors Thursday Trip.

Sunday got out on the bike again, so three bikes this week and one run session (it’s been over two weeks father since I was last at the pool!!). Sundays Bike was with Liam Dillion at 17 and a half stone there is only one speed he does and that’s slow!!

Some very poor running form.

So far the bike seems to be going along ok nothing special but it’s moving. The run particularly the longer ones however I’m really struggling on. I know I really need to concentrate on getting the weight down, I’m currently hovering above 14 stone which is pretty heavy!!

This week I got out for 3 runs 3 bikes and 2 swims, so it wasn’t bad all in all. I did a 5 mile run on the Monday which was a bit of nothing, it was supposed to be my long run but was just too wrecked to do anymore so it was neither fast nor long!!

Tuesday got out for a good bike ride we did about 80k in 3 hours, not too hilly. Then on Weds I got a good swim in the morning pumped the guns in the afternoon then did speed session on track with Kilcoole that night.

I woke up Thursday morning thinking I’d been run over by a bus but had a 1hour 20min hill run down to do with Razor Ryan. Went out and did the run but I was in bits, we weren’t that long up the first hill in Djouce when I had to start walking in fact it might have been before a hill I was that bad. It was a real reminder of how far off the pace I am on the running.

On Friday I went cycling with Conor Duggan, he reminded me that I ain’t so sharp on the bike either. What was an easy 2 hours spin for him was prob a tough 2 hours for me. I was really feeling wrecked towards the end of this week and my rest day was Sunday this time.

Saturday I was out on the bike again this time with Wicklow Tri. Went with the faster group and whilst the pace was alright, I did find myself struggling a bit. I decided after an hour or so to turn back as I wasn’t out for a longer spin that 2 hours. On the way back I managed to break the crank (long part of the pedal) right off the bike. Nearly snotted myself when it happend, so the bike is broken and is currently seeking the best attention possibly, however my spirit is broken now. I possibly need to start going out on the bike with people I know I’m stronger than and persuading my 2 year old to take up running as I reckon I have the endurance on her I need something for the confidence!!

23 weeks to go.

It’s not that long really. If you are only doing one long bike a week and doing a rest every 4 weeks it means you’ve only really go about 16-17 long bike rides left. Training went really well this week, I just missed one session which was  a swim.

Monday- Did a two hour bike ride with Sean (missed my swim in the morning though!). It was planned for a turbo session but it was a great day and I had a bit of time in the afternoon.

Tuesday- Was a bit of a mess. Was supposed to get out for a longer spin but kept getting punctures in the end got fustrated and put on the runners. Went for a longish run it was 20k but I stopped and walked at parts.

Wed- Did swim session in the morning. It was very basic, I just did about 1k. Then did speed session in the afternoon. Swimming at the moment is coming along very slowly.

Thursday- Wasn’t a great day just did a very basic swim only about 500 meters.

Friday- 3 hour cycle with John, Paddy, Conor. Felt ok on this one it was possibly a bit easier going than Mondays cycle felt good for most of it.

Saturday- Did nothing on Saturday although I prob should have done one long swim set to make up for missing it during the week and generally been very weak on the swims.

Sunday- Got out for a nice 3 hour spin with Andy, Liam and Paulie. It was a nice pace and felt good all way around. Came back and decided to go for an easy 5k run. First brick session since IM France last year!!

Rest And Test.

When I wrote out my plan a little over 4 weeks ago. I put a Rest week in place every 4th Week so this was it. I didn’t have to do much this week again 3 of each discipline but nothing long or anything. Even still I managed to miss quiet a few sessions.

Bike- I got on the Turbo twice this week which wasn’t bad. Monday I did my 44k time trial and did my 4th best time which I was pretty happy about. Then on Tuesday I attempted to climb Mt Venotoux (or something) on the iMagic. anyway at the bottom of the climb I broke the gear cable, so I was stuck in the small cog for the whole climb. I hung on for 1 hour when I got off my thighs were throbbing! So sent the bike in to get fixed. Didn’t pick it up all week as it was busy in the shop. So two cycles done.

Swim- Missed my first swim set on Monday. Did a 1500meter time trial on Weds it took me 32mins 34 seconds. Got into the pool again on Thursday for a light session and that was it for the week so I missed a swim too!! not good.

Run- First run session was on Weds. Did that it was a speed session on the track with Kilcoole it went ok, I felt alright considering it’s been a year since I’ve done anything like that. Thursday I attempted to do my 10k time trial but I just couldn’t do it I was a bit knackered from the track the night before, ended up just doing about 7k on the track. Tried again on Sunday to do time trial but I had about 10 beers on Saturday night so wasn’t feeling great on the track, got sick on the track and pulled a halt to it.

This week coming is my first real big week that I have pencilled in. I need to start doing what I have written down, it may be tough because I have a 5 hour cycle planned for Tuesday I haven’t done long distance on the bike for a while so 5 hours seems a bit of a stretch. But I am getting more determined, I suprised myself by staying on the turbo trainner when I was stuck in the bottom gear going up a mountain.

Snow everywhere!!

It’s been a tough week to get out and do stuff. The swimming has been ok and the running is fine but I haven’t really done much on the bike.

I normally love my trubo trainner so I can’t use the snow as an excuse. And running in the snow is actually really good, in Rocky 4 he did most of his training in the snow so it must be good if Rocky did it. I did get up the Sallygap on Monday and pulled my brother Fatcam on a sledge, see picture below.

Honestly. Last week was pretty bad. Got into the pool on Monday and did an ok swim set. Just trying to do some distance in the pool as it’s been a while since I’ve done swim training. I managed to get to the pool three times this week which is very good for me. I missed no swim sessions. The bike however because of the weather I missed two out of 3 bike sessions. Only managing to get on the turbo for 1 hour on Tuesday. I got out for 2 10k runs. I was supposed to do one 18k run and one speed session and one 10k run so got two sessions but it was just about getting out and doing something. The plan this week is again 3 sesssions of each discipline, there is no reason why I shouldn’t be able to run so I am aiming to do at least my 3 swims, 3 runs, and hopefully 2 bike rides at least. It is hard to clock up 18k on the run (I find running in the snow really takes it out of you) so even if it’s just 3 10k runs that would be something. The speed sessions is supposed to be with Kilcoole on the Wed night I think it could be cancelled again.

Christmas Week (20th-27th)

Christmas week tried to keep it as easy as possible however it’s hard to stop eating when the food is sooo good.

Managed to get out for a run on Christmas eve. I’m slowly getting some run fitness back after the marathon. Christmas day was just a dip in the sea but you really couldn’t call it swimming, just got my hair wet.

~Stephens day managed to get out for a bike ride. Lasted about 3 hours pretty much down the N11 and back there was too much ice to take any back roads at all. We had one minor climb where I tried pushing it but could feel the turkey coming up!!

Sunday- Just got out for a bit of a run today. On Christmas eve I felt the run fitness was coming back but today I felt like I was starting from scratch again!!

Week ending Sunday 20th December

Monday- In the past few weeks I’ve managed to get out on the bike a good bit so now it’s time to get back into the pool regularly. It’s not that I’m a bad swimmer but when I haven’t been in the pool for a while I lose a lot of fitness. So at the moment it’s just a case of getting into the pool as often as possible and building up the mileage. I managed to get into the pool this morning but would say I only did about 500-700 meters. But from small acorns and all that!!

Tuesday- Went for a spin with a few Retired/Weekend workers. Tuesday suits me to go for a long bike ride so we are getting a bit of a group together. John Darcy tends to know the routes inside out so we usually turn up and tell him how long we can go out for and he makes up a route that should have us back in time. It was a horrible day so John pulled out. Which left myself, Liam Dillion, Craig, Karen and the great Paddy Ryan. We ended up doing pretty easy to remember route and because the weather was so bad so it was out towards Brittas and back. None of use would be as experienced as John so we didn’t cop on that there was a good tail wind with us, so when we turned around at Arklow and headed back the N11 it was tough! (lesson learned)

Wed- There was a plan to do a run and swim but got neither done.

Thursday- Run and swim. Parked in the shoreline in Bray and ran up Bray head. Was going ok pace running along the road but once we hit the trail (and steep hill) the pace went down to 8 min kilometer pace which is very slow. It is only my second run since the marathon so no need to put pressure on myself. In fact I was making a point out of not going too high on the HRM. Did a swim afterwards but again wasn’t up to much!

Friday- Again missed two sessions on this day that were planned.

Saturday- Was supposed to be a day off. Didn’t have time to catch up on Yesterdays sessions as we had planned a wetsuit test night in the NAC. Went pretty well but training this week has been poor.

Sunday- Was supposed to do a 3 hour spin today. The weather was clear but when I went to get the bike from the shed it was just far too cold!! Thought I’d get on the iMagic and do my new route I bought Mount Ventelox (or something). It’s like 3-4 hours of climbing. Imagic crashed so I ended up just doing a swim for 40 mins instead.

All in all it wasn’t a great weeks training. Next week with Christmas it’s prob going to be harder again!!

7th-13th December.

Hey I’m only easing myself gently into this.

Monday- Nothing really happened. I had a rough plan to do a swim in the morning but my daughter stopped that plan by messing around in the morning. I only got her to the creche just before shop opening time.

Tuesday- Didn’t get out to do anything again. I could blame my daughter again but it wasn’t her fault. Lacking motiviation!! So I decided to draw up a training plan all the way up until France.

I got the pen and paper out and started with Race Week. In fact all of race month was a bit hard as I’m at a wedding early in June which I’m really looking forward to but bit of boozing will be mandatory (so close to the Ironman!!). Anyway it took me about 2 hours but I wrote out everything that I need to do from now until June 1st. Wicklow 200 is included in the plan as I am back from the wedding on Friday and it’s on the Sunday so I might have jelly legs for that!!

Weds- Well the plan is up on the fridge door now so today it told me to do a 3 hour bike ride. Met up with John Darcy and Karen Graham and did close enough to 3 hours easy enough pace and pretty flat. Felt good afterwards.

Thursday- I haven’t actually run since the Marathon so I though I’d start off with my Trail run in Glen of The Downs woods. I’ve done this run in about 38 minutes before but with me been badly out of shape it took me 45 minutes this time!! plenty of room for improvement.

Friday- Staff shortages in the shop meant I couldn’t get out training today. The missed session was a long swim and tempo run.

Saturday- This is going to be my day off I prob should have caught up for Yesterdays missed sessions but I had planned to do Christmas type stuff after work. Work was a bit of a nightmare as we plugged in too many heaters and blew the trip switch. So the shop was in darkness for about 4 hours. Eventually we got access to the Gym next door and flipped the switch back. By the time I got home was too knackered for anything.

Sunday- Plan today was just a 2 hour spin. So went out with Bray Wheelers and went with the shorter spin group. Went ok, did 60k was about 2hours 15mins which for me is a pretty fast pace.

All in all it wasn’t a great week. I did get a plan out of the week though which should stand me in good stead for the next 6-7 months. However I only planned 7 sessions last week and managed to miss four of them. I’ve 9  planned sessions for this week so hopefully I can hit at least 7 of them.

Turbo training week.

Well the week that was in it with half the country under water I didn’t fancy going out on the bike. I still haven’t gone running since the Dublin City Marathon and haven’t really swam since June. So it’s just the bike (mainly the turbo) at the moment. I have the iMagic Turbo trainner so I race the same route it’s a 44k time trial which can take me anything from 1 hour 12mins (my best time) or 1 hour 27mins (worst about a year ago). I basically watch all the rocky DVD’s whilst training so this week been on the turbo 4 times I got in 1 2 3 and 4. It’s got to be my favourite scene “The russian is cut and it’s a bad cut” Than Duke coming in “You see you see he’s not a machine”

It’s prob not the best training to do as you are constantly just killing yourself to get a better time than the last time. I took it easy on Monday and then did my Turbo training sessions on Tuesday, Weds, Thursday and Friday. Feel pretty good after it. The idea is to just keep ticking over at the moment and try and pick up the other two disciplines at some stage this month.