Timanfaya Dreaming

[rattus]

Well done on The Beaver.

The Woody starting to feel closer for you?

[IronGirl]

The Woody starting to feel closer for you?

Cheers Rattus. Yes way too close, some serious bike rides to be done yet and I've only been open water swimming for the last couple of weeks.

The running is fine (now the feet are recovered) and I'm doing the Man v Horse marathon on 9th June as a training run. Actually it's ONLY 22 miles but with 4000 feet of climbing. Pretty confident about that and I'll be out to beat my previous time on it. A bit too much for Ironman training, I think 2 1/2 hour runs are sufficient, but I love this race so throwing it in for fun while I have the fitness.

The week after I have a duathlon (postponed from April - may as well go and do a hard session as it's paid for.) Note to self only allowed out to play if I get a reasonable bike in during the week as well.

Then the week after that I have the Cotswolds 113 (Half Ironman distance) - pan flat course so pb potential, fingers crossed for a problem free race.

Big bike coming up this weekend - need to get a solid 5 hour ride done I think. Nice and Hilly. I know just the route.

So will try and keep the blog updated but if there's a gap I'm probably asleep in a corner somewhere!!

[IronGirl]

Thursday Park and run commute

Friday Park and run Commute

run to pool
2700m swim
run back to work

Saturday

5 hour 40 min bike

Hilly route taking in Crews Hill, Ankerdine, Clifton Bank, Clee Hill, Cleobury Mortimer, Clows Top, Abberley Hill, Stanford Church Hill, Bromyard Downs, Acton Bank.

[IronGirl]

Monday

1 1/2 hour run with 5 X 1km reps

with the dogs in Radnor Forest

[rattus]

I've only been open water swimming for the last couple of weeks.

I'm sure you'll be fine. The Woody swim is in that old quarry isn't it? Seems very sheltered so it's not going to be rough.

Couple of years ago I did the first Windermere tri and the water was so rough I got seasick!!!!

[IronGirl]

I've only been open water swimming for the last couple of weeks.

I'm sure you'll be fine. The Woody swim is in that old quarry isn't it? Seems very sheltered so it's not going to be rough.

Couple of years ago I did the first Windermere tri and the water was so rough I got seasick!!!!

Not so bothered about it being rough but would like it a few degrees warmer. Yes the The Woody swim is in a quarry and it's very deep so maybe a little chilly!

Roughest one I've ever done was Nice Long course Triathlon (now taken over by Ironman). The sea was rough, the waves were over our heads as we headed out. Luckily I always practice breathing on both sides and this was pretty handy once we were swimming parallel to the shore as I was able to switch when we changed direction. The pack was also pretty rough, about 2500 people all trying to find some clear water. We started at 6am in the morning, it was pitch black and the only clue we had was a boat bobbing around on the horizon with a light on. Apparantly the first bouy was there! There was lots of pushing and shoving and far too much feet scratching. I think the whole field were drafting the whole way, we just got sucked along. Good in a way but seriously choppy. One British girl got knocked out at the first bouy, Mr I got sea sick and when the paramedics spotted him throwing up about 5 miles in to the bike they pulled him out of the race! He was gutted! The Woody should be rather more civillised!

Mind you I do like sea swimming. My best ever half Ironman had a sea swim. The plan was to do a steady swim and build into the race. However it was freezing, the organisers claimed it was 13 degrees and kept it at 1900m. Once I got in I decided to go hard and just get the hell out of the water, it was perishing. About half way through the swim I felt what I thought was someone touch my foot. I glanced back and saw that I'd swam right off the front and there were no swimmers behind me. (blimey they were the days. 25 km a week days!!).So that someone touching my foot was something, right? Well it was probably seaweed but when the adrenaline is pumping the jaws tune starts ....der de der de!, my lets go fast and get out of here pace turns into sprint for the line and gets me a PB. First lady out of the water, nice one! lol!

[IronGirl]

Wednesday

Open water swim at Gullets Quarry.
About 2000m, still very cold in here. A couple of degres up maybe.

Greeted by BillyBobs when I got out. He'd been running with Mr I and came running over when he heard my voice and realised that I wasn't a big black monster getting out of the quarry.

35 minute run with Poppa on Bringsty Common. with 8 x 400m(ish)

[IronGirl]

Saturday Man v Horse Marathon

A return visit to Llanwytd Wells to do the Man v Horse Marathon that I did 2 years ago. With visions of getting a course pb....lol! read on.

Well take an already challenging fell run course and apply several weeks of rain. Miles of mud (churned up by 50 horses galloping through it), peat bogs, miles and miles and miles of trail turned into streams, climbs turned into waterfalls and not forgetting the 4000 feet of climbing.

Friday night it was pouring down and windy as well and the organisers almost cancelled. Wet cold runners on that course would just have been too much. But saturday morning they decided to go ahead with a few tweeks to the course. First of all they delayed the start by 1 hour to allow the rivers to go down. I'm not sure how much difference 1 hour could have made but hey ho. And we were not allowed to go through the final river as it was about 5 or 6 feet high and would just have carried us away, so an extra loop was added onto the end of the race to take us to a bridge.

The race starts in the centre of town in front of the pub, so you get about a mile on road to reach the hills. This was the first and last bit of good running on the course. The only snag is that it's on a steep hill and it's almost impossible to run in parts.

The race is in 3 sections. I went well over the first section and was 5 minutes up on my previous attempt. A miracle given the conditions. Last time the race was a real stretch for me, so it was good to see that my fitness has improved. The first section takes you through a large area of peat bogs and you have to watch it in places or you would be in one up to your neck. Best to watch the runner in front and follow their steps! How the horses got through it I've no idea. The whole area was made even worse by all the rain. I remember there being some good trail in this section where you can really make up time. These areas were flooded and had efectively turned into streams, certainly well over the ankles with the odd deep pool that was of course hidden and many a scream was heard as people found them. I was amazed that I didn't get any blisters. My shoes and socks were obviously soaked for the whole race and very heavy with it. I'd taped my feet in places known to blister and amazingly it worked.

The 2nd section was wetter if that's possible and had long deep muddy sections, it was quite an art staying on your feet in places. Can't remember much else about it, just that it was absolutely relentless mud, water and rivers.
I was a bit slower than before on the 2nd section, but overall still up on time overall.

However on the 3rd section both my calves were pulsating and threatening to cramp. I'm putting down to the odd running action we'd had to employ to get through miles of mud and water. It was all up on your toes and lifting the knees high. My energy levels were good and I was pleased with my nutrition again. But the calve thing was to slow me down. When we got to the final river where you normally turn off my time was the same as 2 years ago. I was really pleased with that given the conditions. The extra loop was on road and my calves decided that they really didn't like that and I could feel that they were going to lock solid if I got up on my toes and picked up the pace. So I just had an agonising cool down slow plod around to the finish. I didn't really care I'd had a brilliant training run, I think?

I got 2 medals for finishing, 1 for the man v Horse and 1 for the World Alternative Games. Llanwyrtd Wells is home to things like the World bog snorkling championships, the World Bog snorkling triathlon and many more crazy events

[veganlisa]

Wow, great job under the circumstances! I recently ran/walked on a muddy trail with portions churned up by horses...that was tough. I couldn't imagine doing that for miles, in addition to all of the other obstacles you described. Your one tough girl!

[Big Good Wolf]

Sounds like a good race for you. It's one I wanted to do, but they don't allow bikes any more.

[IronGirl]

Thanks Vegan Lisa.

Yeah BGW it's a pity about MTBs not being allowed anymore, I can't see that they would do any more damage than the horses. Would have been good fun on a bike yesterday especially some of the river crossings! However they still do the real ale wobble around the same sort of area. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5O1j5GJi-M

Sunday

30 minute recovery run with the dogs on the Worcestershire way around Crews Hill. Solid ground....ahh luxury!

[IronGirl]

Sunday

I was entered for a duathlon today, Kempley duathlon rescheduled from April due to the torrential rain. So here we are in June and it's not much different. Plus it would have been a bit of a luxury doing a short race when I really need to be doing long bikes so I decided to skip

After several soakings during the week I was leaving nothing to chance today.
A long bike was going to happen, so out came the turbo. The torture device is back. Grrr it's time we got a summer.

5 1/2 hour Turbo set!!!!

Spinervals Hardcore 100 - ya gotta love Troy!!

Started off feeling a bit flat, but just seemed to feel better and better as the session went on. Felt really strong at the end. There's something very evil about a 5 1/2 turbo set that finishes with 5 X 1 min killer intervals and 30 second sprints. Then again there is something rather warped about a 5 1/2 hour turbo session.

[IronGirl]

monday to friday
a few park and run commutes.

A really bad week at work. Redundancy rounds for the 3rd year running and my job is at risk again! Very stressed!

Saturday

Drive over to Cotswolds to register for tomorrows Cotswolds 113 Half Ironman.
Poured down the whole way and I got completely lost. Found the Cotswolds Waterpark no problem but could I find "Lake 32" - not a hope. Nothing open so decided to pull into a hotel and ask for directions. Got sent in completely the wrong direction. So I've now gone from stressed to double stressed being lost in pouring rain. Finally phoned the race director and got guided in, I was only a couple of miles off all along, but it was a bit tricky and a few triathlon event signs would not have gone amiss.

So I finally got to register at 8pm, only an hour late!

Got to the campsite just after 8pm and got the tent pitched. Basically had dinner and turned in for the night.Shattered!
Ever tried to get to sleep in a tent in the pouring rain. Grrr I had to be up at 4.30am as transition was going to close at 5.30am. To cut a long night short, the rain basically hammered down on the tent all night. I reckon I had 1 hours sleep tops!

Sunday Cotswolds 113 Half Ironman

Got everything into transition by 5.30am !!!
Only to be told there was a 30 min delay as they were having problems getting everyone into the carpark as everwhere was so wet. And it was overcast and drizzling again. Had a walk back down to the campsite to pick up my wetsuit and get my bike bottles which I'd left in the car - what a muppet! Back into transition with the bottles just in time as a few minutes later they started throwing people out. I don't know why. The first wave wasn't going off until 6.30 and I was in the final wave at 7am, so a little frustrating. An hour of waiting around??

At 6:50 we were allowed in the water to warm up. The water temp was about 15 degrees so I left it 5 minutes and got in just in time to check goggles etc. Finally at 7am we were off, thank goodness I could finally start to relax. I set off steadlily and managed to pick up a draft and coast along. After about 400m I decided to start picking things up a bit and bridged the gap to a faster bunch where I was again able to pick up a draft. So I had both a steady and easy swim. Came out of the water in 35 minutes, very steady.

The bike rack area was a swamp with muddy pathways between the bikes. The rain was not giving up so I'd decided on a long sleeve cycling jacket over the tri suit. I think they timed the racking area as T1, but there was still several hundred metres to the road where we could mount the bikes. The organisers had laid lots and lots carpet along most of it and with the rain last night it too was like a swamp. Plus some gravel track to negotiate. Nobody was chancing running along this bit and I reckon it was 5 min out and 5 mins in along this. My lovely new race bike and best race wheels looked like they had been around a cyclocross course. This was not going to be a PB day.

The bike was predominately flat and 2 laps. There was one significant hill on each lap. However long streches of it were very exposed and there was a strong headwind going back towards the event centre. I managed 3:03 if you take away the "transition mat walk!" Ok for me, I'm hopeless in a headwind. I wanted to go under 3 hours so pleased in these conditions.

Still raining and I was glad that I'd left my run shoes in a plastic bag in transition, not the done thing but nice to start with dry feet. My toes were still white from the swim at this point, but quickly started to warm up once I was out on the run.

The gentle trail run around the lakes had turned into a winter cross country course, with that really slippy greasy sort of mud. The run was 3 laps and after the first lap the sun came out and we had beautiful sunshine for the run.It seemed that I had lots of energy and felt that I was running well, although very slow with all the mud and ended up coming in in 2 hours. I looked like I'd had a mud bath. No problems with the feet today and my legs feel OK. I was worried about my right ankle which was aching on the last lap, I think from all the sliding around. however it's OK tonight.

We got a good goody bag with a tee shirt, thermal coffee mug, sweat band for wrist, a medal, 2 new bottles, race cap and you could have had as many gels as you could stick in your pockets if you like that sort of thing.

I really need a good nights sleep!

So a good month I think, 2 half Ironman races, 2 century rides and a fell running marathon. Ironman training can be a lonely venture but this has been lots of fun.

Time now to evaluate and plan next month. I need to get some speed (or maybe that should be tempo) sessions back in, I'm lacking umph at the moment. At this moment in time Ironman seems like an awful long way.

[Mr. Cleetus]

Well done in the half! Sounds like it was a bit of an epic, but fun too

Sorry to hear about all of the work stress, I hope it all comes out ok in the end.

[IronGirl]

Oops just looking at the date of my last post! Not good but it just about sums up the last month of training.
I've done a couple of long runs, a couple of turbo sets and a couple of swims. Ironman Training.....Not!

It's simply been the month from hell with work. Things were in such a state I decided to take voluntary redundancy in the end. Followed by a mass panic applying for new jobs. I had 2 interviews this week and got offered both, so it's all come right in the end. I've going to be working a Sixth Form College in Ludlow. Seems like a friendly little place and Ludlow is a lovely little town, not to mention some great bike routes to get there.....Clee Hill in a morning anyone?

So that leaves the Ironman training in a bit of a state. What am I going to do? I have about 2 1/2 weeks before I am supposed to taper.

1. Do I shut up and get on with it. I can get 3 big weekends in, then "get round" this Ironman.

2. Be sensible and drop down to the half that is on the same day. Could get 4 weeks training in and 2 week taper would be enough for a half.

3. Forget it and build up the running and do a late season marathon or something.