So I am just after completing 100 lengthes of hotel Ballina pool and now resting on my sofa and about to settle into a nice bowl of veg soup there is probably no better time to catch up on my blogging.
The last 2 weeks have been quite busy with me taking part in the Black Sod Triathlon as part of a relay team, taking on my first open water swim in about 2 years and really upping the ante on my training volume.
I will start off first with the 10 kilometre run that I completed in the Black Sod, having only run this distance twice in the past and both times being on a treadmill I wasn't sure what to expect come the race. I had laid out a pretty foolproof plan whereby I was hoping to run at a Pace of about 4:30min per kilometre, from what I had heard the run was quite difficult with a large number of hills and a beach with deep sand to overcome on the route. Upon my teammate getting back from the bike leg it was up to me to embark on the run, I used my GPS running watch to set an initial pace about 4min per kilometre, I stuck with this for the first 3K and at that point I picked up the pace dropping the average speed per kilometre to about 3:45 unfortunately this did not last long and the terrain slowly started to fight back, I dug in deep and maintained the best pace possible to come across the finish line in 40:14. This is a personal best for me and I'm keen to increase my performances further.
The week after Black Sod I decided to take part in a bit of open water swimming, I have swam in open water a few times in the past mainly in the salmon run triathlon and once or twice in the pier in Enniscrone, so I knew this was going to take some getting used to. I borrowed a wetsuit from another triathlete hear in Ballina and luckily it fitted me pretty good, from there I went to the pier in Enniscrone and joined by 3 other swimmers we completed about 2 kilometres of open water work.
I could really feel it in my body the following day my neck was quite stiff and I could tell my arms have worked very hard battling in the choppy water. I suppose a lot of people might be wondering why I am going so crazy into the swimming it is mainly down to the fact that I I'm looking to take part in the Killary Harbour swim which is 3.9 kilometres in length, I know for a fact that this is going to be quite a challenge but if I can keep the work up over the next 2 weeks I have no doubt that I will be capable of completing the event.
Pretty much to finish off this post I'm going to give a little recap on the bike training that I have been doing over the last while I mentioned in my previous blogs I have been working on a nice and progressive strength and conditioning program with my free squat now up to 100kg for 3 sets of 8 reps in the gym. I have started to add some 1 to 2 hour road bike sessions to steadily start building back up my endurance base. All of this in combination with my running and swimming should really increase my fitness and prevent me from gaining any unnecessary weight over the next few months.
More to come!!
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