Run Mojo go now!

After writing the earlier post about skipping run sessions twice i decided to get off the comfy couch and go for a quick run. Nothing to hard, just an easy recovery pace for the whole run, what i like to call my all day pace. As in i could if i had someone to talk to run all day at that pace.


Did a nice little loop, normally it goes along the coast for longer, but it was way way to windy so i took the short cut through the housing estate :) 4.2km ish, rather than the normal 5km ish. Took 24mins, focused on staying on the forefoot for most of the run. Getting better at it!

Training mojo is back!

Had a bit of a shitty start to the weeks training. Monday was in essence a write off. Got a cycle in but only 12km , nice high cadance session but i wasn't pushing out at all. Was testing Tues, wed, and Thurs for my final year project. So that got in the way, allot. I don't mind the testing, its the faffing in between i don't like!!!

Had a good run on Tuesday, was supposed to go outside but it was blowing a gale so chickened out and hit the treadmill for 35 min's. Full steady state session, HR was so so stable, was running at 11kph for the whole session felt great, really good. Wed was two cadence sessions on the bike, both 30 min's long. Keeping the cadence over 100 for the whole session with some sprints in too, legs were dead so the run session that i was supposed to do that day got pushed back a day. Then the long fingering started.

Thursday was a speed session in the pool, followed by the pushed back run. So the swim session was a farce. I don't know but i just was about as motivated as a small dead squirrel. Did half the session, decided that i couldn't give a F*^% about the session, got out of the pool in a foul humour and went to the lab. Tested a lad, it ran over, and i had to run to a varsities meeting. This went well, the team are well psyched for the cycling varsities. Went home, sat in front of telly and didn't even pretend to move to go for the run. Wasn't even funny.

Today i got a bit more sleep than normal. Got up about 9.30 and had some breakey, still a bit moody so i did some work for the club, then got some college stuff done. Was looking forward to getting out on the bike, when i noticed i had a puncture. Fixed it, cycling into meet the lads, another puncture! They always come in two's! Surprisingly i wasn't getting angry....weird. Met the lads and had some coffee to put off the inevitable. It was real real windy today.

Headed out towards the TT course for the varsities, man the wind made it a bit of a joke. Just couldn't push out, i was laughing at Tim he was tucking in so close to me to hide from the wind. Little guy kept getting blown out of it. However when we got to the course it was a different story, my racing brain was in gear. Pushing hard with the wind behind me, clocking 65.5kph at stages. Max power for one of my splits was 1049 watts exiting one corner. The worse thing is i know i can go faster!!! Man i'm psyched for the TT , don't care less about the RR once i finish in the bunch to get some decent points. The sprint pirmes will be mine. I am willing to deck to get them.

The mojo is back, if i could bottle it for next weekend i would have more than enough to give to the whole team. Roll on the varsities. Roll on some prizes.

Busy busy weekend....well social anyway

Had a good week training last week. Tuesday saw my first Interval session back running since the ankle injury. (4:30 at recovery pace, then 30 seconds at a fast pace)x5. Full session took about 35 min's including a warm-up and a cool down. Felt good for the whole run, felt odd to be back enjoying running! Stretched for a good 30mins after the session, just to be sure to be sure.

Had another good session in the pool on Wed. Was supposed to be a sprint session, but i just couldn't get the pace up, so turned it into a nice steady state session with some tempo work. Did a decent session based about 200m sets and 100m sets, total distance was about 1,000m. Felt good after but a bit tired from the training of the entire week.

Thursday i was heading over to Manchester again. Cycled into college, did some testing, the dropped the bike in the lads house and went to the airport. Peter came over with me so had company on the plane for a change! Didn't do much on the Thurs evening. Friday morning was supposed to be a run session, but i decided to catch up on some sleep....woke up at 9:30 :) Went into town with Peter and Carys (who was up from Plymoth) and faffed for a few hours. Did a bit of sight seeing and met up with Pauline and headed towards the MOSI to see the Body Worlds exhibition. Fantastic. I could rant on for hours about it, but in short it was great to see what we actually have inside and how it all works together! Noel you did a good job teaching me anatomy. Played KILLER BUNNIES!!! Great game.

Saturday was another good day! Chilled out in the morning and went too Decathlon, i had decided i was not going to spend money! Arrhghg how wrong i was. i only spent £3.30 on myself, the rest was on trophies for the intervarsities. Watched the Wales match and the Irish rugby match's. Great games, dang i wish the English would stop beating France! So onto the track we went to watch some racing. Fantastic night. I'll post some photos and videos when i get them off Peter. Best racing i have ever seen at Rev's. probably cause it was GB team sprint selections.

Sunday was an odd day, went to Old Trafford :) Did the stadium tour and looked around the museum. Was odd, i've started watching a bit of soccer again while working, and was a great tour at the Man U grounds. Haven't really supported my team in years, maybe i will pay a bit of attention to em. played a bit of Bunnies on Sunday night again.

Up early Monday, bounced our way back home on the plane, and straight into college via tea and picking up my bike. Did a bit more work, met my other supervisor, then cycled home. Man i was tired. So very tired. Didn't sleep to well either, i hate when i get to wrecked to sleep, i was up until 2 before i fell asleep, i guess i was thinking a bit too much about the varsities, having too many ideas!

Today i was psyched to get back to training after the weekend off. RRARRRR resting sucks! Did a 35min run today at about 70%. Felt good, HR remained nice and steady for the whole session and i felt good. Going to take a spin out to the TT course tomorrow after testing Tim. Need to remember what its like so i can gauge gears for the TT. I'm going to ride it fixed. No reason not to, im fast on a fixed. Just want to check the corners.

Just keep swimming....swimming swimming....

Today was set to be a long day. Cycle to college, test Mike again, do some work, do a swim session, then go to a meeting for college, then ride to get home for about 7:30. I was going to do the session this morning but i felt like pushing it back. Dunno why, woke up well early, just wasn't in a swim mood.

Got into college and tested Mike again. I reckon he was tired cause his numbers were lower than before. Not quite sure why, he wasn't doing much, but you could see his HR just wasn't working. Had some coffee and lunch after and talked a bit about the race and plans for the racing season. Man i'm looking forward to getting my racing groove on again!

Big swim session today. First big one in a while :/

250m warm up. Easy enough, just winding it up as i went.
1,000m main set. No stops, pace it pace it!
3x75m each slower than last

Felt ok for the warm up, sloppy but ok. The first 400m of the main set was horrible, i was nearly going to quit at half way then just mentally forced myself to keep going. Hit the 600m mark and i finally started to loosen out and get some glide on. Man i don't know why it took so long, normally its the first 200m, but this was what i get for not swim training :/ After i loosened out i was fine, just kept swimming. Took a 3 min's break at the end of the set and did some cool downs. Felt good all the way, and form was still ok.

Boring boring lecture, then cycle home. Thankfully i had some spagbol in the fridge for when i got home. Took ages to get home after the lecture. Easy spin on the bike. Nothing savage. Big day tomorrow, training and work! yey more money!

BBRRRRRRrrrrr.....

Frick it was cold today!

Had to work today so no could go for cycle with Peter and Grainne. Went out to the Hockey Inter-provincial finals. Good game, Leinster vs Munster.

Was planning to do a swim session today. Legs are tired and a bit sore so I've decided to do some of the college work i have to do tomorrow tonight, then swim in the morning tomorrow before Mike comes in again to get the second set of testing done!

Season is starting to come together now in my head. 15 weeks until the race, 14weeks of college left. Finally getting my race calender together. Now have 3 races booked and paid for.

11th May - Wimslow Triathlon
18th May - Fingal Tri
Two week taper
1st June - Switzerland 70.3

This week i have mostly......

Been training! The mojo is still high and i'm getting some great sessions in. Every day i'm waking up, i want to go to college, i want to work on my project, and most of all i want to train! How long can this last?

Wed saw a nice few spins about town, into college, out to UCD, and then home. Attended a TI classroom session for the beginners in Tri thing that's going on at the moment. Was a bit useless for me, but was fun to go too none the less. Nice to see people getting into tri, man they know more than i did when i took the plunge. Think i got about 45km in total on Wed. Nothing to high or hard, most of the stuff was just at a nice aerobic pace.

Thurs was a day off. I was starting to feel stale and i didn't sleep to well on Wed evening. My brain wanted to train, but my conciousness wouldn't let me. Good thing too, cause when i went to bed on Thursday i was out like a light. Had a great day in the lab on Thurs. had Mike in to do some testing for him, he is a pilot study for my FYP. Did a Wingate test and incremental VO2max test with him. He did quite well getting a 61 in the max test. Looks like we have a similar max! Little bit worrying cause i know he has better running economy than me (git). Took the evening off, watched films. Chilling = good.

Friday. Long day in my head. Into college, do some work. Drove in cause i had to do some testing after, and i knew i had a long session planned for the evening. Got home from work. Was worried about my session. First 10km run since i had done my ankle in proper in January. Threw the gear on after much faffing and out the door. Decided not to push out at all, kept my HR bellow 170 and tried to keep a nice pace all the way. First 10mins were hard , i keep feeling like my ankle was about to get sore and start to back off. Eventually i decided to just run. Totally forgot about the ankle and the time started to go! 5km in hit the turn around , watch said 23:10, i wasn't pushing so was happy, stupid happy. Legs really started to loosen out and the running got easier and easier. Had a girl to chase about 200m ahead of me, doing pretty much the same pace. Great to have something to chase! The run home was good, hit the front door and checked the watch, 22:20! Faster! But it felt easier! Man i haven't had a good run in years, honest to gwod that felt great. The whole 51 : 49 split for the distance is starting.

Hit the shower and got straight into compression tights after. Foodage and stretches for the rest of the evening cause i had a hard session planned for this morning. Decided to sleep in the compression tights. First time i had done this so i was expecting to wake up in the middle of the night to rip them off, generally i ain't to good sleeping in clothes. No problems, woke up as the alarm hit 7:30am this morning. Threw on my riding gear, got some food and coffee in. Out the door at 8:10am. Quick 17km warm-up to meet some of the club lads in the Park. Spent the next hour half doing laps on the varsities course. Need to get to know that route by heart, every hole, every climb. Met up with some of the TI folks at the beginners run day. Didn't have my shoes so just chatted then rode home via town and a quick stop in Cyclelogical to get me a new bottom bracket for the road bike. Man those lads are nice to me some times, even got offered coffee today. Saw a lovely new version of my bike , Quintanna Roo Caliente. I didn't ask, if i ask i generally buy. Got the hell outta there with my CC intact...ish. All in all got a nice 74km in today. Came home happy as a pig in poop. Food, stretching and now doing some maintenance on the bikes.

Swim in the morning, then a spot of workage. Going to plan another 10km run for next week. Then a 10km run after a 2hr bike. Need to start the brick sessions big time. 105 days to go!

I still got that mojo feeling

Still here!

wOOt! Still training and still loving it.

Monday got a hard turbo session in. Interval session on wattage. Tuesday was a nice 1 hour cardio session in the gym, running and rowing, followed by a 15 mins session in the pool. Cut the swim session short cause i was swimming like crap. No idea, probs just tired from the sessions. So decided to take the evening easy.

Got a cycle into college, then out to UCD later tonight for a classroom session with Triathlon Ireland. Just for intro's for beginners, might be doing one myself for them so figure i should pop out and see what they are doing. Spin should be about 50km.

Thursday i might be doing a max test again, cause the last one was b*&&^*%s. Have to see how i am feeling. Lined up for a recovery day on Friday, maybe a light spin on the bike, working in the afternoon.

Sat i reckon will be a nice long spin, or , go mountain running. Ankle was ok during the run yesterday so i reckon i'll be up for it, see what happens. Sunday, run in the morning, then workage. Swim in the evening.

GO MOJO!