39 Days to go

Only 39 days to go now and counting. At this stage its just a matter of keeping up the regular sessions and continue our Weekend simulation training. I am running an average of 3 nights durinng the week covering 40km and swimmning three mornings a week covering 4.5km. I have lost 1 stone since March and just need another 1/2 stone to lose before September 6th. Big decisions need to be made regarding equipment. Footwear, I'm still undecided, waiting on the KSO treks to be delivered from the U.S before I make up my mind. I think Pearse will opt for a super lightweight runner. I swam this morning with Fins and I think that the time it takes to take them on and off will be made up by not using them at all and also it will cut out in carrying them for the runs too. Now its down to the Bag chioce. The Camelbak Hydration Packs range is massive so I think I will go for a 1.5l pack with a lttle space for gels, gps tracker, bars, compass, maps etc... Underneeth my wetsuit I will wear a one piece Tri Suit. Mirrored Goggles, Blue Seventy Skull Cap and a smile on my face. If anyboy has a checklist drawn up it would be much appreciated to share it.

Sunday 25th July 2010

Time to get down to some nitty gritty - We decided to go for Donabate beach in North Co Dublin, about one hour from where we live. Its a long beach with a very gentle slope into the water so that you could be 100m from the shoreline and still be only in 1metre of water. The water was clear and easy to swim in, very calm.

Two goals today
1) How would we tolerate running while wearing the wetsuits?
Both of us are glad to report that there were no problems experienced by either of us.

2) How would we be with nutrition over this distance?
We kept nutrition to a minimum to see how we would react to the increase in intensity. No hunger pangs and no thirst either.

Overall it was a good day and so tomorrow will be a rest day. Tuesday is Charlie (my little boys) birthday, he will be one! What better reason to relax and enjoy the day.

Session
Run 500m Road
Swim 500m
Run 7,000m Road
Swim 200m
Run 3,500m Road
Swim 1,600m
Run 2,500m Sand Dunes
Swim 1,000m

Total Run 13,500m
Total Swim 3,300m

All is good.

Wednesday 21st July

Running early in the morning is the only time to run, and running barefoot on cool dampened grass is the best surface for running. Today was just under the hour and was enjoyable, no watch on the wrist to look at so it was just run till I heard the church bells hourly chime.
A quick splash in the pool of 250m to cool down. That'll do nicely.

That'll do nicely for today.

Pearse

Sunday morning

Kris Kristoffersson wrote a song once about Sunday morning ..

Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad so I had one more for dessert
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes and found my cleanest dirty shirt
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair an' stumbled out the door to meet the day

He kinda summed it up as to how I was feeling this morning, the long Sunday morning runs had to begin today and so I went to Reggies house and we starred at the rain falling outside for a second and without either of us saying anything to each other, pulled the door closed of the house and began our run. We ran to Fairyhouse Racecourse which was about 4.5km away and then did three laps, of the course, each lap is about 2.5km. The first two laps were run anticlockwise against a healthy breeze and a soft rain on the face. For the final lap we ran clockwise and picked up the pace and the chat stopped between us. I decided we should run this lap bare foot and it was so refreshing. I think I will increase my barefoot runs each week. We put our runners back on and ran back to the house, hot shower and a drink and then home for lunch. A good first longer run of about 18km. Job done.

Next weekend the target is 25km. I need to get a good route for this as I don;t like to be running around the same lap 20 times!!! Aarrrgghh .

A few swims this week and I'll be starting to do more stretching in the evenings. A good day today.

I had good fun at home this evening with Charlie (11 months), Mae (3 years) and my wife Eileen, painting and playing.


Pearse

Wednesday 7th July

40 mins run this morning - following by a quick splash in pool.

Ran through the grounds of St Patricks College Maynooth http://www.maynoothcollege.ie/ . I'm very lucky to be able to use these grounds along with Carton House http://www.cartonhouse.com/activities-trails.html for doing the runs.

Chocolate muffins are now banned at lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays!

First open water sea swim of the year

Saturday morning last - Dunmore East in Waterford was the location for my first open water sea swim of the year, my brother Declan had his first swim the previous week in Kilkee. The distance was 3.8km, over a two lap course. About 300m of the swim was in the relative shelter of the small bay and the remainder was out into the channel. After turning past the first boy the water had quite a swell and a good size chop to it. A drop in the sea temperature also was fun! On the second lap the sea got a bit more confusing to swim in because of the bigger waves and this made sighting the buoys a lot more difficult. Because the buoys were so small, it was difficult to see or even to see other swimmers around you. Eventually the swim back to the start was managed even though we were swimming through a tough cross current emphasizing the need for bilateral breathing. I still can only breathe to my left side! The swim had all the ingredients of a demanding open water event. A large temperature variation and large surface condition variation. Result - Pearse 1hr 22 mins Declan Reggie 1 hr 38 mins. Both of us very pleased with the swim and are looking forward to the next one.