Timanfaya Dreaming

[soniczip]

your trainings always look sound is the water going to be cold on the 18th of september over there? are you going to wear a wet suit?

[IronGirl]

[quote="soniczip"]your trainings always look sound is the water going to be cold on the 18th of september over there? are you going to wear a wet suit?

[IronGirl]

Friday 3 hour 45 min Bike

A hilly loop through 3 counties - Herefordshire - Shropshire - Worcestershire, sounds good but we are right on the border.

A good undulating route for warm up over to Tenbury, then I hit the hills starting with Clee Hill, a good descent then another short nip (don't know the name) towards Cleebury Mortimer, rolling hills up to Clows Top, with Abberley Hill taking me over to Great Witley. Left at Great Witley took me on to the "Little Mountain Time Trial" route so no rest on the way home. Notably the climb at Stanford Bank peaks at around 1in5 and feels like it after 3 hours of riding. More rolling hills from Sapey to home. Blimey who's mad idea was that the day after a time trial?

[IronGirl]

Saturday
Waun Fach Fell Race - in the Black Mountains

7 miles with 2000 feet of climbing, the highest peak in South Wales, had to be done! Category AM Fell Race, that's medium length with silly amounts of climbing.

An easy start down a gravelly rocky track, left onto about a 800m stretch on road, just enough to lull you into a false sense of security, then another left to the "real start", up and up and up, rocks and mud and just one big line of bodies yomping up the mountain. Couldn't see anyone running at this point, a quick march with hands on knees seemed to be the best approach so as not to pass out! Once on the top we had a tricky ridge run to tackle - peat bog, rocks and having to think everytime you put your foot down. Still I was able to pull back a few places on the top. We rolled up and down this ridge with about 3 main peaks including Waun Fach, then we headed down and I mean straight down. Very glad by now that I had decided on my fell running shoes despite the dry summer, I really needed the extra grip. Can only say my descending sucks! I think I lost all the places I'd managed to pull back on the ridge. At least I ran it but I really don't have good technique when it comes to throwing myself down the side of a mountain. (yeah I can dream it's good when I'm coming down the Malverns, but to be honest that's trail running isn't it) At the end of the descent there was a stream, a style - the only one today and then the final sting in the tale. The finish was at the top of a steep bank about 800m of about 1 in 4. There were remains of what looked like a very small castle at the top and lots of runners and spectators sat on the top. Certainly a memorable finish line.

A great day out, would definately recommend the race or just trying the route. My aim was a hard hilly training run and boy did I get that!

[soniczip]

the place really looks nice. were you fell running on rocks or grass, or both?

[IronGirl]

[quote="soniczip"]the place really looks nice. were you fell running on rocks or grass, or both?

[IronGirl]

Sunday

Open Water Swim at Gullets
8 laps ........ about 2400m
Absolutely gorgeous day for it.

weights session - all 3 x 10reps
Bench Press
Lat Pull down
Tricep pull down
Bicep curl
Leg Press

Back Extensions 3 x 10
Sit ups 3 x 20

[IronGirl]

Has just beeen a rest week and mum sitting!

Monday
Rest day
7 hour round trip to pick up mum

tuesday
1800m swim - steady

wednesday
45 min run

thursday
rest day /decided against the club TT

Friday
1700m swim

45 min run

Saturday
5km Park run - not recovered yet / not a good day for a time trial
45 min run up to Worcestershire Beacon

Sunday
1 hour 45 min bike
Ankerdine, Martley, Clifton Bank, Sapey towards home
Felt like I'd got a bit of Umph back in my legs. In hindsight I think the5k yesterday did them good / would have been more productive to do reps maybe, but no real damage from just 5k I guess

monday
2000m swim as
600 warm up
3 x 400 as Hungarian reps - feeling better in the pool too - some good lessons to be learned for the recovery & taper at the end of this training!
200 cool down

50 min run

[IronGirl]

Tuesday
50 min run with BillyBobs along the Worcestershire Way

1 hour Turbo Set - The first hour of Spinervals 9.0 "No Mercy" and there wasn't!!
Note to self - Would not have worked this hard on the road. - some harder rides needed

I'm going into my final build (final month) of training for the half now and have been doing some evaluating.

Swimming
I'm happily doing 2km sets and doing proper allbeit short sets.
No longer feels like an epic to do this and the shoulder is OK (touch wood)
Conclusion - build up to 3km sessions this month & continue to build lactate tolerance.

Biking
I am so enjoying cycling again - would be easy(by that I mean fun) just to set off into the hills and ride and ride from dawn to dusk.
But hey there is a half Ironman fast approaching.
Will limit myself to one 4 to 5 hour steady ride a week or I will just wear myself to a frazzle.
Going to bring in some Brick sessions - not sure what to do for the best at the moment. Options are:
1. race simulation i.e ride 56mile and then run (maybe week 1 = 3 mile, week 2=5 mile and week 3 =8mile) or
2. Multiple Bike runs e.g 20 min bike (turbo) into 10 min run, repeat 4 times
3. A combination of the above 2, using #2 to do some tempo based work - Mmm yes I'm favouring#3 now I'm thinking out loud.
Also planning to do the final few TTs with my cycling club.


running
I've backed off my running to get the swim and bike going. It is time to get it up to speed again this month.

Finally I have to decide on a pace for the half IM. I'm thinking no HRM at the moment. I'm not training with one at the moment, they tend to hold me back - this is not an IM!
The race simulation bricks probably hold the key to this. Might just have to go for broke in one of them and see what happens. haha. It will be fun to try.

[IronGirl]

Wednesday
2200m Swim
500 warm up
15 X 100 0n 1:43 to !:44
200 Cool down

Saturday
30 min run with the dogs

A completely hopeless week for training.
Had my mum staying .......... going to need some ground rules for the next time is all I can say. Love her to pieces but..... Arhhhhh!!!

On a good note I've been doing lots of sorting around the house and garage and ebaying like crazy. The new road bike fund is looking very healthy.
Yeah I'm looking for a lightweight road bike for Ironman triathlons and sportives.
I have a road bike which is quite old and has a custom made 531 frame. I actually love the frame it is very giving on the road. However I had to compromise when I bought it - the money went into the custom made frame and everything else had to be basic to reduce costs. It's had several upgrades over the years and I love it for training on. It will still be my winter / commute / horrid weather bike.
Most of my racing Tri's and TTs has been done on a cannondale TT bike. I've now got this set up for short TTs and short tri's with low profile bars and as aero a position as I find I can actually ride in.
Trouble is it's as twitchy as hell on hilly technical courses and I creak when I try and run after hours in that position.
So looking for a road bike, which I just feel I will be able to"throw around" a long hilly course and I know from experiences on my training bike that I will run better off a road bike. Plan would still be to try and get a fairly low aero postion and clip a pair of aero bars on the front, so I can maximise effort on the flatter pats of a course. Just wouldn't feel so "couped up" as I do on the TT bike.

So some bike shopping coming up - How exciting!!

Er yeah did someone say the "I" word? La La La <Puts fingers in ears!>

[IronGirl]

OK then so there are just 6 week to go. That's 3 training and 3 taper. Quite scary!

Some maximised / race specific workouts over the next 3 weeks.

Sunday PB for this course

1 hour 32 min run as

25 min warm up
4 X 10 min at between 10k and 1/2 Mar pace, with 5 min recovery run at level 2 inbetween
medium pace to finish the loop to get home

Used the Gaines, Bringsty, Brockhampton, Down loop. Was a 1:55ish loop in the depth of winter / used to be used as the long weekend run

Time included a few stops to throw Poppa over styles. She usually helps ( by putting her paws on top and semi jumping the things) but she decided to play being a dead weight today - bless her!

[IronGirl]

Monday 2 Hour 20 min Brick Session

Bike - following roughly the Little Mountain Time Trial route
Warm up down to Knightwick
Ankerdine Hill (1 in 5)
5 min at level 2
30 min Tempo (about Olympic Distance pace)
5 min at level 2
Stanford Bank (1 in 5)
5 min at level 2
30 min Tempo (again at about Olympic Distance pace)
about a 5 min spin home
1:55 Total Bike
Run
First Km off the bike at 10k pace, then steady
25 min total run

[IronGirl]

Tuesday

30 min recovery run with the dogs down the Worcestershire way.

2000m swim
400 warm up
15 X 100 on 1:45 with 15 sec rest
100 easy

Wednesday

30 min run with 10 X 30 sec hard, 30 sec level 2

Thursday

Took car int Garage (to have suspension tested as it's been playing up - Grrr!) Ran 5km Home
Another 5km back to garage to collect car (at least they couldn't find anything wrong)

3000m Swim as
Warm Up
2 X (100 swim, 100 pull, 100 kick)
6 x 75 kick, as 25 easy, 25 med, 25 hard - This was not funny - Triathletes DON'T kick!!!
Main
5 x 300 odds increasing speed throug the length, evens sighting every 2 strokes
5 x 50 fast off 1:15
Cool Down
250 easy

Friday

4 Hour 20 min Bike
Herefordshire to Oxford to meet Mr I
Getting quicker on this route

[IronGirl]

Saturday Rest

Sunday

Approx 3000m Open Water Swim

Gorgeous afternoon for it at Gullets. The water level seems to have gone down a lot and the water is not as refreshing as it has been. But certainly not bad by open water standards.
10 laps of about 300m (depends how much you cut the corners!)as
2 laps easy
2 X (2 laps hard)
2 laps with paddles - now wishing I'd picked up my little old yellow ones instead of Mr Is dinner plate ones! Boy do you have to push.
1 lap broken down into 4 sprints
1 lap easy cooldown- tried to do a couple of strokes of breaststoke at the start of the cooldown. I could do this in my old wetsuit (my snug made to measure that I sold yonks ago). Absolutely impossible in this suit. Just shows how much bouyancy it is actually giving me in the legs, really pleased about this btw.

40 min run
with 10 x (30 sec hard, 30 sec steady)

[IronGirl]

Monday 1 hour 45 min Fell Run
Radnor Forest with Mr I and the dogs.
Put 2 X 1 mile at threshold in the middle to liven things up a bit!