Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Create a new topic for yourself here and keep a record of your training, weight loss, goals etc.

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby jonathon.e » 05 Sep 2014 14:07

The unknown is but an adventure to be savoured.

Interesting that the Race to extinction started on the 7/9/13 and will finish on the eve of the 6/9/14.

Never try anything new on race day :lol: :lol: :lol:
I am quite sure you have calculated it to the milligram :D

15 mins that is all, it will be down to the run, the last discipline of the last event, twelve months and the smack down talk has been limited to classic paintings and quotes from Shakespeare :lol:
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.
User avatar
jonathon.e
 
Posts: 3450
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 19:49
Blog: View Blog (17)

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby Jack Hughes » 05 Sep 2014 14:13

jonathon.e wrote:Interesting that the Race to extinction started on the 7/9/13 and will finish on the eve of the 6/9/14.


Ahem. I think you mean "look how carefully, and with what intricate planning, we have devised our year long challenge", from dawn on the 7/9/2013* to dusk on the 6/9/2014. A whole year of merriment. The scariest thing is how quickly the time has flown!

*assume that dawn is about 14:00, which it probably was, near enough).
Omnia Vanitas

Immortal (for a limited tme).
User avatar
Jack Hughes
 
Posts: 11085
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 17:19
Location: God's own county

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby kfjatek » 05 Sep 2014 14:14

Good luck for tomorrow - will be very interesting to follow how you guys are doing.

Speedfil is awesome, really simplifies things - depending on how much liquid you need you may not need to refill it on the bike (I didn't in Poland, and only added a quick squeeze of High5 last week at the Vit). Any plan for timed hydration / nutrition, or is the plan to just go on feel?

:ugeek:
2015:
26/04 Southampton 10k
30/05 Sieraków Triathlon
21/06 Dambuster Triathlon
29/08 Club Relays
27/09 Hever Triathlon
User avatar
kfjatek
Spends a divorce inducing amount of time on forum
 
Posts: 3219
Joined: 26 Sep 2012 12:16
Location: London/Surrey

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby Jack Hughes » 05 Sep 2014 14:15

kfjatek wrote:Good luck for tomorrow - will be very interesting to follow how you guys are doing.

Speedfil is awesome, really simplifies things - depending on how much liquid you need you may not need to refill it on the bike (I didn't in Poland, and only added a quick squeeze of High5 last week at the Vit). Any plan for timed hydration / nutrition, or is the plan to just go on feel?

:ugeek:



Drink to thirst!

(I have done some calculations though :D)
Omnia Vanitas

Immortal (for a limited tme).
User avatar
Jack Hughes
 
Posts: 11085
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 17:19
Location: God's own county

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby kfjatek » 05 Sep 2014 14:24

Jack Hughes wrote:(I have done some calculations though )


I expected nothing less than that.

:ugeek:
2015:
26/04 Southampton 10k
30/05 Sieraków Triathlon
21/06 Dambuster Triathlon
29/08 Club Relays
27/09 Hever Triathlon
User avatar
kfjatek
Spends a divorce inducing amount of time on forum
 
Posts: 3219
Joined: 26 Sep 2012 12:16
Location: London/Surrey

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby Jack Hughes » 08 Sep 2014 08:43

Battle's over and the dust is clearing.

See results in race reports section.

Just wanted to reflect a bit on "the big picture" as it's easy to lose sight of that.

This started when jon.e said to me "you should do more races". Or something like that, and for me, it was a return to "doing something".

It's useful to compare this year (2013/2014) with 2010/2011.

2010-2011: I entered around one race per month (a mix of running, TTs and tris). Managed 1 pool sprint, 1 open water sprint, 2 ODs but by August I was pretty broken. I was trying to do 6+ hours per week training.

In 2011 I wanted to step up the distance to middle, and entered a load of events in advance to support this.

By the time of the Cheshire Cat sportive I was already completely broken. Had to watch all events (and there were quite a few) disappear. Managed to do just one event (the Etape du Dales). No tris, one early season running race, no TTs. Despite all but stopping in May 2011, I did the most miles on the bike that I have done in a year. And a lot of swimming (swimming was probably the best it's ever been, getting down to an 8 minute 400m). But it wasn't worth the cost... not in terms of discomfort etc. as well as the the wasted entry fees.

Cue a slow and depressing attempt to get somewhere where it files like you are making steady steps forward - rather than one step forward, three steps back.

The last half of 2011 was back to step 1. This didn't work. So in 2012 I went back to step 0. That didn't work (just one cycling event managed), not really any other races - I had entered one, but didn't get to run it. So 2013 was back to step -1. All about adjusting work load, and expectations.

2013 worked pretty well. Able to do some interesting things - every day in may was a particular "break through" (rather than "break down") aspect.

More importantly was the realisation that I was thriving on a workload averaging 2.5 hours per week.

This really takes the form of shorter efforts (really, the cycling was a lot lower in time) - so an hour on the bike, a 20 minute run (no swimming :D), and by the autumn I was ready. Still cautious, but pretty unbroken. A key difference from 2010 era, is that I am no longer forcing myself out first thing in the morning (typically swimming, but running too). So everything has been done in the evening (or weekend). Obviously, though, the morning time was where I could make more time).

I'm sure I said somewhere, towards the beginning of the season, that I would aim for 4 hours per week, and no more. Which is pretty much what I have done: just over 4 hours from January to August. I did have a big block in July (annual holiday) which has skewed things a bit.

[I'll find out the hours]

I've thrown the traditional concept of a training plan out of the window... so there is nothing, other than events, that I have in the diary. Instead, everything is based on how I feel and to what extent I have recovered from the previous efforts. I would like to say things like yoga help - they possibly do, but I don't think I do enough for it to be significant. Rather, it is that I think I have the understand of what "if you carry on like this, you will break" feels like, because of all the times I did carry on like that. I also have a suspicion that deliberately aiming low (and no stressing about it) is the key aspect. I.e. don't plan too much, and don't look at what you should be doing. Of course, I properly started serious exercise aka training in 2008 (maybe the end of 2007), but first race was entered in 2008. So I have a few years of trying to do something under the belt - which undoubtedly helps.

So, in this season I have done:

Fell races
MTB races (never done that before)
Stand alone swimming races (never done that before)
Road races
Bike hill climbs (not done that since I was 15)
TTs
Pool and Open water Tris
A Middle distance/HIM tri (never done that before).
An 3.8km swim in the lake district (never done that before, not sure I want to do it again :D)

But what about performances?

I got within a few seconds of 10k PB (41:18 in 2013 vs 41:09 in 2008) - but the course was slightly different, and it hurt a lot less :D. Equalled my bradford park run PB. So the running has been up there. of the three 10K road races, the times ranged from 41:18 to 41:42. So performance has generally been up there with previous bests (I am a lot heavier than I was when I set the previous best too).


I set PBs in each of the two 25 mile TTs I did. There is a large element of technological doping (TT bike vs Road Bike), so It's hard to draw conclusions - but I am probably no worse than before (really need a power meter to answer that).

I've just about set a 10 mile TT (event cancelled, but timekeeper still recorded a time). It has to be said that the weather has been awful in all the TTs I've done (apart from the one that was cancelled).

I don't think I'm swimming quite as fast as I was in 2011, but I am swimming faster than in 2010 when I last did races. Certainly getting the same "speed" for less effort.

The sprint tri was a bit slower than in 2010, but the day was a lot harder.

The OD was definitely quicker - by 12 minutes, and getting a sub 2h:30m was quite pleasing.

And I am also pleased in how a executed the HIM - given that I felt rather underprepared for it.

Still, the biggest achievement was not breaking, and starting and finishing every race.

I am still have issues though: calf/achilles complex still needs continual management - it was actually pretty much perfect back at the beginning of the year, but has been troublesome of late. This doesn't seem to relate too much to running though. Neck/shoulder is causing a lot of grief - I probably need to see a specialist. This has nothing to do with activity though (it actually feels a lot better after the all over body mashing that a triathlon is).

I came close to breaking in August (after the OD) but managed to recognise the signs in time (about 12 hours in August). Not the traditional build up to an HIM.

So, looking forward to a week or so of nothing but walking and yoga (it will take until Wednesday/Thursday for the DOMs to disappear). [Except for a rerun of the 10 mile TT, which I am even less fired up about, but need to beat jon.e in the FUBAR)].

The on with the next project!


One final thing: The biggest lesson that Every Day in May taught me, was that my running performance wasn't governed by what happened in the 30 minutes of running in the previous 24 hours, but what happened in the other 23.5 hours.. i.e. work/sleep/travel. And reinforced that my lifestyle isn't that optimal for good health. I should have effected some changes that should improve things from next month onwards. I hope.

Looking forward to 2014/2015.
Omnia Vanitas

Immortal (for a limited tme).
User avatar
Jack Hughes
 
Posts: 11085
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 17:19
Location: God's own county

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby CCS » 08 Sep 2014 09:14

Interesting words from the wise old man of the north!
It has been a fascinating battle to watch - and very interesting to see what smart use of time has been able to produce.
What are your plans for fitting in the raining for next year's marathon goal (which will presumably need quite a bit of mileage as input - or are you sticking with this approach)?
Well done to both dinos - looking forward to reading the report of the final battle. Anyone would think you had both deliberately engineered the whole year to go right down to the wire just to keep your audience in suspense :lol:
Talking to myself and feeling old
User avatar
CCS
 
Posts: 3933
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 17:14
Location: Surrey

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby Jack Hughes » 08 Sep 2014 09:36

CCS wrote:What are your plans for fitting in the raining for next year's marathon goal (which will presumably need quite a bit of mileage as input - or are you sticking with this approach)?

I will start a new "log" shortly. With a single sport and discrete performance targets, it will be an interesting exercise.

I'm don't think it will be easier, but it's more the trying to do it that interests me. I am still not really that bothered about running the VLM. :D

Well done to both dinos - looking forward to reading the report of the final battle. Anyone would think you had both deliberately engineered the whole year to go right down to the wire just to keep your audience in suspense :lol:


I would like to take the credit for that. Obviously, we threw events into the mix that would give us a balance (cycling == same, running == me, swimming == jon.e), but quite pleasing how close it has all been, especially in the tris.

I did remark that if we had tried to, we couldn't really have got it much closer. Especially if you think of all the things that could have unpredictably gone wrong. Especially in the last event :D.

Possibly it might have been closer if one of the missing events had been done - i.e. a margin of victory of around 2 minutes...
Omnia Vanitas

Immortal (for a limited tme).
User avatar
Jack Hughes
 
Posts: 11085
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 17:19
Location: God's own county

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby Jack Hughes » 14 Sep 2014 08:29

Campaign is over for the year. Quick Recap of what I did for my 50th Birthday (year).

Kicked off on

September 7th 2013:

1) 10 Mile TT: Started, Finished: 26:00 - life time PB from 2010 of 25:56 was almost reached.

October

2) Withins Skyline fell race (about 10k ish, but uphill) - Started, finished, improved by 5 minutes on 2012 time
3) Two cycling hill climbs - not done these (since 1979? 1980?). Hard work. Mental note that 2 in a day is not optimal. Good fun.

November

4) Leeds Abbey Dash 10k. PB 41:09 from 2008. Managed 41:18 on a slightly different course. Didn't hurt as much as the previous one did.

Also a Park Run course PB equalled - 20:42 (done after the Abbey Dash, so running improving)

December 2013

5) Fell race - was properly ill (but not injured!!), so didn't start (entry on day). Running really took a hit after this - some kind of gastric flu - took a good month to even start to feel better.

January 2014

6) Fell race - still suffering from being ill. So looking forward to this one. Beaten by 10 minutes by person A.

February

7) Dewsbury 10k - 41:42 (park run times show I am still a bit off the November/December peak), but finished in same time as person A - so a step up from the previous month

8) 10 mile TT: 28:05 horrendous day, still nearly 2 minutes course PB (not a fast course)

March

9) Bradford 10K. Course PB of 41:11 (in 2011). Ran 41:29. Was a windy day with times generally down from the Dewsbury, so pleased with that.

Hell of the Worth - always a tough ride - new bike HR Max.

April

10) Sprint Tri - not a PB - but a much windier day - swim PB for a 400m pool sprint leg :D

11) 25 mile TT: 1:07:44. Previous PB of 01:09:53, so smashed that. Not a very good day, either.


May

Month off - travel to San Francisco mainly.

June

11) OW sprint - not done this course before. But all went OK.

Also hit the 50 total in parkrun, so got a nice tee-shirt with 50 on it just in time for my Birthday :D

July

12) 3.8km swim. I started and I finished. 15 minutes slower than I had hoped. It was long and cold so my performance really tailed off, I think. No telemetry so don't really know what actually happened. But this was mainly about completion. 01:46

August

13) 25 mile TT. Horrendous weather. 01:05:26, so knocked another couple of minutes off the lifetime PB.

14) OD sprint. Got under 2h:30m, and beat previous time (2010) by over 10 minutes. So pleased with that. Weather conditions were pretty horrible too (Hurricane Bertha)

15) 10 mile TT. Abandoned when I got to 6 miles. But I carried on (soft pedalling) past the time keeper who still recorded a time for me, although it doesn't count for entries etc. 24:03 - so smashed the PB by nearly 2 minutes. But just shy of the elusive 25mph.

September

16) Middle distance. Worried about lack of training, but got through. Having done some deep analysis, I *may* have been a bit conservative on bike and run. But this may have just been lack of training.

17) 10 mile TT. 23:11. So smashed the PB again.


Got to 79 kgs in February - but weight crept back on. But didn't seem to affect performance too much (must be muscle :D)

Finished first in the VM50 category in the club BBAR competition, which is the main thing.

In short:

1) Running was up there with pre-surgery best, equalled a PB and came very close to others
2) Smashed all the PBs in cycling (although some technological doping involved with a TT bike - improve 25 time by nearly 5 minutes, 10 time by nearly 3 minutes. Same course for the 10 PB, so
3) Swimming was the fastest it's been in a triathlon (although I was faster in 2011, but did a lot more swimming then, so not too displeased).
4) Did a middle distance (time to improve on there!), and a sub 2:30 OD, so pleased with tri performance.

Training: Hit the objectives of between 2.5 - 4 hours per week (had to cycling across the Golden Gate Bridge to make sure I got my 2.5 hours in all weeks ). Mostly enjoyed it.

Knee only hurt after longer events. Achilles come and go - not really quite sure where it is, but it didn't get in the way of any events!

Weight was the only negative, in that it was rather positive. Still lighter at 50 than at 40 (and 30) though.

I'll give myself a 9/10 for that.

It's all about running and not eating now!
Omnia Vanitas

Immortal (for a limited tme).
User avatar
Jack Hughes
 
Posts: 11085
Joined: 05 Jan 2010 17:19
Location: God's own county

Re: Battle of the Dinosaurs - Race to Extinction

Postby Jimba » 14 Sep 2014 22:31

I would be more generous with a 9.5. That reads like an outstanding year to me, not for any single event improvement but for progress across a range and staying unbroken at the end of it. What I find remarkable is the relatively small training load and whilst carrying an extra few pounds. Winter goals - stay unbroken, lose a few pounds, improve transitions!
Clean since 25.9.14
Jimba
 
Posts: 1088
Joined: 21 Sep 2010 17:24

PreviousNext

Return to Training Logs

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 17 guests

cron