The floods have subsided somewhat, which surprised me because it has been raining every single day. But apparently the system started to cope with the influx of water once the conditions turned from appalling to merely bad.
I managed to catch a window between two storm fronts on Monday morning. The wind was still blowing at gale force level, but I can cope with that. It’s when the strength goes up to storm force that I have to stay at home. With the absence of rain it was definitely tolerable, but my legs are undeniably not at their best. I had planned on doing 10 miles, but when I checked the Garmin about 4 miles down the road I realised that I was significantly slower than anticipated. I decided to turn around after 4.5 miles in order not to be late for work. I was a bit miffed by that, it certainly felt like sub-8 pace, but it wasn’t. On the other hand, a look at the heart rate might give the impression that I was really pushing things, but that was not the case either. I still think that once I manage to string a few decent runs together both the pace and the lower heart rate will return in next to no time. Since the next target race is not until April there is no need to panic just yet. After all, I’m still in my off-season, even if I had not planned on one.
Since the weather forecast on Tuesday was swinging towards the appalling side of things again I hooked up my bike to the indoor trainer instead of heading outside. Initially I wondered if I had chickened out of a run unnecessarily because it was only windy, not raining. But within 10 minutes the heavens opened and I was more than happy to be inside my own 4 walls. I managed 60 minutes on the bike on this occasion and I can tell that it’s getting easier. A fortnight ago I would have been knackered after half an hour. Cian joined me for the last 10 minutes, watching telly and commenting on my cycling at the same time. He also told me that he wants to run a race with me, as soon as he has practised running for a bit.
Wednesday saw yet another early morning (what’s new?) and I drove to Killarney for a swim. Because of roadworks on the Killorglin bridge I was a few minutes late and there was no swimming instructor to be seen. I headed inside. No coach. I went into the pool and did a few lengths. Still no coach. I ended up with somewhere between 45 and 50 minutes of swimming, easily the most I have ever done without breaks (apart from catching my breath for a few seconds at times). I kept concentrating on what I had learnt last week, and eventually it all started to make sense. I still need a lot more confidence before I can breath easily and the less said about my kick the better, but since my first lesson was only a week ago I’m pretty happy with the way this is going so far.
At one stage a guy came along in a wheelchair, got himself into the water and started swimming at amazing speeds, by far the fastest swimmer in the pool. That was very impressive, an amazing sight and not something I’ll forget in a hurry.
- 23 Nov
- 9 miles, 1:13:24, 8:09 pace, HR 153
- 24 Nov
- 60 mins bike, HR 151
- 25 Nov
- 45+ mins swim
Hey Thomas
ReplyDeleteKeep up the efforts with the swimming and keep catching those windows between storm fronts.
I can see you doing the 'Iron Man' wqithin a year 'no worries!' :]
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that! You get swim legs just doing your normal runs right now.
ReplyDeleteLessons (coaching) is the way to go. I swam like a brick - used to get lapped by old ladies doing breaststroke. Then I improved to swimming like a light brick ;)