Damian's Training Blog
Training for IM France

2 Months and a bit since Ironman.

Well it’s been over 2 Months since I did Ironman and I’ve had a little bit more time to reflect on it.

We are due a baby in January so the plan was to take a break from Triathlons and maybe look at doing Dublin marathon in 2011 to focus on something. But not finishing the ironman in 2010 is killing me so I have to go back. This will be my third year going back to France.

I’m not going back with the same attitude and same weight. I do really want to take a bit of a break from Triathlons just for a year or maybe two so I may as well train really hard and smart this time do France and hopefully take a break on a bit of a high. For the first time in 11 years I am going to get a coach. We’ll have new blogs coming online around November 2010 with myself and a few others that are doing Ironman in the shop, for the next few months I’m going to take it easy enough.

Ironman France Final Report.

Well didn’t get a chance to update the blog in the 3 weeks leading up to the Race, so I’ll do a quick report of how training went leading up to the race. I went to Italy for my Sister in laws wedding, it was gorgous in a fantastic location which took my mind almost complelty off Ironman training. I always knew I had this wedding coming up and so had done my training up until that point. I knew I was going to have a fairly long taper. I didn’t do much in Italy a couple of runs and that was it. I was planning on doing the Wicklow 200km Bike race on my return, however there was a fair bit of drink taken and we were only back from Italy on the Saturday quiet late. However I got up Sunday morning and went for a spin. I decided after Rathdrum to spin home early which meant I cut the course short by 30k or so. I was pretty wrecked after it but was going to france with good training behind me.

Arrived in France on Thursday, met Andy Cromein in Airport along with some supporters. On the Saturday we all met up from Wicklow Tri Andy Cromein, Conor McGowan, Chris England and Billy Diggin. It was great to have so many people over there and we joked about where we were all going to come.

I also met up with an ex work Colleague Sean Fox who had been doing some serious training and was looking in great shape. Sean ended up doing a really good time.

I was really looking forward to Nice this year. I knew the course knew what was ahead of me and reckoned I had enough training done to do a decent time. The swim was probabaly my biggest worry. I got out of the water in 1 hour 19minutes. It was 3 minutes down on last year but bearing in mind the amount of training I had done I was pretty happy with that. Got out onto the bike and took it easy for the first 20k which are flat feeling quiet comfortable. Took in a couple of climbs then early on and we had a good bit of desecnding to do. On one of the descents I somehow managed to clip the curb on a turn and came off the bike. It wasn’t a bad fall and I landed on some soft stuff but I over extended my knee. It was pretty sore at the time but after a few mins I was able to get back on the bike. Once I put on a bit of pressure it became sore. I decided to try and get through the bike to see if it might get better, Each time we hit a hill I had to ease off a bit. After about 60k I realised there was no way I was going to be able to do a run off the bike.  I finished the bike course and tried putting weight on the foot again after the bike, I don’t think I could have walked 500 meters on it. So I had to pull out, was absoultley gutted.

I sort of knew from the moment my knee went out that I wasn’t going to finish the race so I had a bit of time to get used to it.  But there is nothing worse than going into T2 and telling them you won’t be continuing. I think I would have prefered if I had blood all over the place but the injury didn’t look bad, there was no cuts no bones popping out but I was in agony. Right now I don’t even want to think about training or doing any races, I feel completly fed up I still haven’t taken my bike out of the box. I just think it’s the worst possible outcome I could have got over there, I’d much rather have run out of time and DNF’d that way then wimp out in the manner I did.

I’ve no doubt I’ll find some other challenge somewhere and it’s probabaly what I need to do is to focus on something else. But for one full week at least I’m just going to feel sorry for myself before I think about anything else. The worst thing about Triathlon is that when you get fustrated like this there is nothing you can do. At least in Rugby you could take it out on the next opponents but in Triathlon you are the opponent. I might even look into taking up white collar boxing or something.

Damian.

Finally I make a splash in the pool.

Well at last I got into some swimming this week, which I was delighted about. I got in to the pool three times and open water 2 times for a total of about 8-9 kilometers which I was really happy about.

Got on the bike a fair bit but nothing compared to last week reckon I might have covered about 200k for the week on the bike. I didn’t really get a long run in. I ran on Monday for 20k Ran 10k on Thursday and ran 21k on Sunday.

Trainning has gone really well now for 3 weeks in a row. I am off to Italy for a wedding in two weeks time which I am really looking forward to, even though it will mean no training on one of the key weeks of IM training. Then the wicklow 200 as soon as I get back!!

The highlight of the week was today. We did a simulated Ironman in Greystones. It was great fun, Lisa Howley orgainised it. I was last out of the water which made me realise just how bad my swimming has got, It wasn’t a race and we went at our own pace. I did most of the bike course with Dave Barry I’ve no doubt he could have done it a lot faster but it was a comfortable enough pace for me and I was more concerned about been able to run a half marathon off it, as typically I die a death in the Ironman. I was delighted to be able to run off the bike and felt pretty comfortable too. I could prob have given it a bit more but the run took me 2 hours 6 mins so was delighted with that.

Team Turlon finally had some good news this week with a top 150th spot in Valentia from our yellow jersey Liam Dillion. Razor Ryan was taken to the mountains and shown how to cycle by muriel, and he is looking very good for a top 100 in his age group in two weeks time.

The last two weeks I’ve done more than 15 hours a week which is a new thing for me.

Damian.

Still no sign of me in the pool.

I’ve been threatening to get in for a swim but still no luck.

This weeks training actually went really well. Aparts from the lack of swimming I have now begun to run and I’ve continued to chip away at the bike so I’ve finally got two of the three balls in the air. Plan is next week to finally get the swimming going too.

The big news this week would have to be the Bray wheelers race on Thursday night. All winter I’ve been training hard with John Darcy (team turlon coach) Razor Ryan (our climber) Liam Dillion (our descender) and coach Tony Martin has been giving us some good advice. But the three of us in particular would have been training hard on the bike. I always look up to both Liam and Paddy as an inspiration and whilst none of us would ever be great at Triathlon I take pride in knowing we’ll give it our best shot. That was until Thursday night, Paddy wasn’t having a great race……these things happen. But without having an injury or a mechanical fault he pulled out of the race. Changed my whole mindset on Razor Ryan………..I suppose the old saying is true never met your heros.

Got out for three good bikes this week. Got a good bit of training done with a fellow Ironman Nice competitor Conor McGowan. We went for a long run on Thursday morning, which kind of got me thinking about run strategy. In my head I was thinking just get out on the run course and give it socks for as long as you can (last year as long as I could was about 5k). This year I was hoping to do the half marathon before the wheels come off. On thursday I ran about a minute per kilometer slower than I normally would but I felt very comfortable the whole way around. I might try and slow down my pace a lot on the runs and see how I go, my only problem is if I die as badly as I usually do then due to my slow pace at the start the run could possibly take even longer than it usually does……..god it’s hard to know what to do.

I haven’t swam in over 3 weeks and for some bizare reason I’m not that worried. I just feel if I can get a bit better at the bike and the run I’ll get some sort of a time on the swim. It’s strange too cause I would prefer the swim out of the three events the most.

Today we had a great old cycle about 130km and almost 2000 meters climbed I got home and went out for a run and felt very comfortable running 6k off the bike. I suppose I’ll only really get a gauge on where I am on the bike when I do the Wicklow 200 this year.

Anyway a very good weeks training. I have never put in as many hours as I have over the past 10 days or so. Hopefully it will pay off in France.

Somebody said the other day there’s only 5 long bikes left!!

I was a bit surprised when I heard we’ve only 5 proper long bikes left. When I inquired what a proper long bike was I was told anything over 6 hours……I haven’t done anything over 5 hours yet.

Anyway I still have yet to do more than one pool session a week. So whilst the bike seems to be going well the running and swimming needs to get going now.

I’ve been messing around with Liam and Paddy Ryan a bit about been the three worst cyclists for the amount of effort we put in. During the cold winter months we were getting out for 2 sometimes three times on the road a week. Now that everyone else is back on the road we seem to be as slow as ever.

Rolled up for the Bray Wheelers time trial last thursday, expecting big things from myself. Was looking around at a lot of very skinny athletes. Anyway they let us off at 30 second intervals. I was thinking in my head if I can hold my own here I’d be happy. If someone catches me hopefully i’ll be able to catch someone ahead of me.

I got overtaken 7 times and didn’t catch, no sorry didn’t even look like I might catch someone. Paddy didn’t fare much better he got done 5 times and Liam was done twice. Afterwards we spoke about possibly taking up skiing instead or something., cause no matter how hard we try we don’t seem to be cyclists.

Swimming maybe is something if I tried a bit more I might be able to keep up with some of the faster guys in the club but I spend very little time in the pool. Work on your weakness they say…..at the moment they all seem to be weakness!!

Monday 12th- Sunday 18th

Had a really good week this week. Managed to get on the bike four times.

On  Monday got out for a good spin with Razor Ryan and John Darcy. We got a good 3 hour spin in and included the shay elliot. At the bottom of the hill I got a puncture. Generally speaking I never carry a pump with me so I had to ring John, he was at the top of the hill and wasn’t too impressed. When he eventually answered he just went “well we’re at the top of the hill will it take you long to fix the puncture” I replied “Yip cause I’ve no pump and fuck all air in my lungs” John  suggested he throw the pump down the hill at me. Eventually he came back down with Razor. Lesson learned and I now have a pump strapped to the bike.

Tuesday I did a small cycle on my own.

On Wed John was getting me to do a 5k run in Ashford. I foolishly thought I’d be able to beat John Darcy at something but it wasn’t to be. I lead him out to the turnaround only for John to breeze past me like I wasn’t moving. Did 20mins 54 seconds but it wasn’t near good enough to get John.

On Thursday I was wrecked. Found it difficult to motivate myself for a run in the morning. In the end I did a wicklow tri swim session but was very wrecked doing it.

On Friday I did a brick session on my own. Nothing interesting happened really.

Saturday was a day of rest.

Sunday was a big day. First A race of the year. Gareth McCabes club was hosting the three peaks challenge. We assembled a crack team and raced under Turlon and Associates. Liam was our main guy for the yellow jersey, Razor Ryan was supposed to be doing the polka dot jersey and I was supposed to be working for the green jersey. Just at the start I fell off my bike and I think the photographer got a photo of it hopefully it doesn’t appear online!!

I caught up with the main group after about 7k. There it became obvious our yellow jersey candidate was in trouble straight away, Razor Ryan had left him and two groups formed. I looked at Liam and knew he was dead weight so dropped him like a hot snot, within 10k our team was reduced down to 2. Razor climbed well and the fact that there was no actually sprint stages I had a great day in the saddle and delivered for the team. One of our domestiques Andrew Cromein was pulled out of the race just before a drugs testing stop at the top of slieve mann, which has put a serious cloud over his Ironman France campaign.

Next week I’m hoping to do the Bray wheelers 7 mile time trial on Thursday. Paddy Ryan and Liam dillion are both doing it so I’m targeting third last place. Some people might think that appears a bit cocky but I think both of them are low on confidence and at the end of the day this will be the first time I’m turning up for a bike race with the correct bike (at the three peaks challenge I was the only one on a time trial bike).

Bad Week.

I had high hopes for this week but I ended up getting a run of bad luck. Monday life got in the way, my sister and brother in law were over and it seemed rude to train. Tuesday I only managed a short run. Weds got out on the bike but punctured after only about 20k so headed back and did about 40k in total.

Did the Wicklow tri swim set on Thursday. We had a bit of a laugh doing relays, I was in charge of the doggy paddle. I think I got a bit excitied as I was coming in 4th out of 4. I took on a lot of water. Next day I was as sick as a dog this lasted about 5 days. Completly wiped me out until Weds of this week.

Anyway, a pretty poor week but I”ve got the bit between my teeth now. Only 9 weeks to go, I feel I got my eureka moment with the sickness and now in my head the “Rocky music” has started you know that one that goes “getting stronger”.

So hopefully next week I’ll be reporting on how I did 15hours+

Still waiting for my Eureka moment.

Last year whilst training for Ironman France we had to go to hong Kong for 2 weeks as Kelly’s Granny wasn’t very well. I didn’t like the food much over there so for two weeks the only thing I ate was Fish, Lobster and Chicken (once I knew it was normal chicken and not a foot or something). I did manage to sneak off to McDonalds once in Kellys village but no one in the whole restaurant could speak English so I had to point at the menu. Too embarassed to go in there again.

Anyway long story short because my diet was so restricted I went from 14 stone to just under 13 stone in two weeks. Suddenly the bike seemed much easy going up hills I was running a lot faster. It was the moment in my training when everything became much easier, this year I am still waiting on that moment. A good bout of some sickness might do the trick this year!

Training for the last two weeks was a bit mixed. Got in my 6 bikes 5 runs and 1 swim. I know I need to increase the mileage on the bike, my long rides are still too small. The running is really starting to come on, I adopted the Heart rate training thing where you run at an average of 135bpm. Intially this was incredibly easy and I did a 30k run like this with no bother, in fact the pace was 6 mins per kilometer and it was hard not to try and run faster. Yesterday (two weeks later) I did the same run I was dying trying to breathe (still 135bpm) and the pace was just under 5 mins per kilometer. I’m going to revert back to my orignal theory that I have a funny heart rate and Heart Rate Training is not for me.

This week I’ll be happy if I can keep the running at the same level and increase the bike rides and get back in the pool again to some consistent level.

Week in New York and a kick up the ass

Went to New York last week. The plan was to run for a week as I knew there wasn’t a pool in the hotel and no bike.

Anyway I ended up doing nothing for the week which was pretty bad. I went for a big cycle before I left which was hilly enough. Left the house headed to Kilmac, up long hill to roundwood, then annamoe, then laragh, then up sally gap then home via Roundwood and down long hill.

Tuesday, Wed, Thurs, Fri and Saturday in New York and did nothing. Went out again on Monday and did the same bike ride, did a swim aftewards. Tuesday did 50k bike ride followed by a swim. Wed did a speed session on the track followed  by a swim. Thursday took a rest day and Friday did 2 hours on the bike with Razor Ryan.

Leading up to Burkes oil in Rathnew myself Liam and Razor usually have a bit of a sprint finish because we are all in or around the same level. No point racing when Bray Wheelers are there as we are just not up to that standard. So from when we left Gleneally until Burkes oil (prob about 6k) myself and razor were swapping the lead, the pace was pretty fast. Razor is one of the most determined people I’ve ever met so everytime he went past me I could see the pain etched into his face. We had a great old battle to Burkes oil which made the cycle much more enjoyable. Overall I was really pleased with training this week, still two more days to go but so far I’ve got in three swims, three bike rides, one run and still two days to get in some more runs.

Damian.

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.