Gaelforce West 21/8/10

c montgomery

strummer_ie wrote: »

Anyone know what we do with our bags while on the kayak?
I presume we'll have to wear a buoyancy aid, so do we wear the backpack
over/under it.
Or is there webbing on the kayaks to secure them ?
Or do we just put them between our knees and paddle on ?

Cheers.

Between the knees is your best option, kyacks dont have webbing.

Wonkagirl

i put the lifejacket over my bag last yr, but my bag is tiny, long and flat.

between ur knees prob the best option otherwise i guess.

christ i have the fear of god today about what's ahead. was really up for it last week, this week i'm just in a state of panic/dread.

Fi H

I asked about toilets and this was the message I got:

We will have portaloos at all the transitions along the route and also at the start.
We will also have a few located along the bike route and these will be marked on the map.


In terms of the kayak - if you put your bag on the floor of the kayak it may get quite wet as they are sit on tip kayaks. I put mine over my buoyancy last time! just loosened the straps. I suppose it depends on the bag itself.

ThisRegard

According to the site there'll be water stations at each transition.

Regarding the bag on the kayak, I presume there'll be the usual small, medium and large buoyancy aids, maybe go for a size bigger if your bag is on the large side. Us mere mortals are timed out at the kayak section so you'll have time to play around with the best fit.

c montgomery

Question fro anyone who has done the new cycle section to CP.

Is this manageable on a road bike with standard wheels or would i be better off on a MTB with slicks?

Last year i used MTB with slicks but i have since then gotten a road bike.
I say a picture of the new section on the cycle forum and it look like a road from the famine times and not something i would race on with a road bike.

All advice and comment appreciateted.

Mr Freeze

c montgomery wrote: »

Question fro anyone who has done the new cycle section to CP.

Is this manageable on a road bike with standard wheels or would i be better off on a MTB with slicks?

Definitely doable on a racer with normal tires.

Orion

thehamo wrote: »

At least im in the walker category so I can walk without looking like too much of a tool:P

Ha. I'm in a runner cat and I can tell you know I'll be walking some of it

2 Wheels Good

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Hope the weather isn't as hot yesterday. Was wrecked at the end of an easy run.

Regarding drinks.

What's the best to drink first when on the bike? Should you be getting electrolytes into you first or a carb based drink?

Or regular swigs of each drink?

I'd probs going to go with Nuuns and High Five 2 in 1.

Had a discussion at lunch today on this and have decided for jagerbombs (premixed) on the run and sambuca for the cycle, should be fully relaxed by CP

2 Wheels Good

Macros42 wrote: »

What are people doing for breakfast? I just rang the Westport Woods where I'm staying and the woman I spoke to knew nothing about any early breakfast for competitors. :rolleyes:. Breakfast starts at 8am she told me and I told her that everyone will be gone by then. I'll just have to bring my own. Some muesli, croissants etc.

Just called the hotel and they said they were doing an early brekkie for the competitors

Orion

Yeah - they rang me back. Cereals, fruit juices and toast. Nothing hot.

Wonkagirl

Macros42 wrote: »

Yeah - they rang me back. Cereals, fruit juices and toast. Nothing hot.

and theyre probably charging through the nose, are they? it seems a lot of the accom prices go up for this wend- if that's the case, they should accomodate earlier breakfast times to justify the higher costs imo.

I'm self catering thankfully, in harbourmill appts. booked it last feb, and i'll be rebooking for 2011 when i check out this yr- it's at the finishline, reasonably cheap and even has a jacuzzi and sauna in the attached hotel- score! I love the freedom of the self catering option personally.

helimachoptor

The joys of having a GF from mayo, she'll be meeting me at the finish line with a feast!! also she doesnt live too far from there maybe 1hours drive but I would say myself and my friend doing it will (legs dependent) probably get her to drop us at Ballina and we can cycle the rest of the way to her house to stretch out the legs

Fitzilicious

ThisRegard wrote: »

Anyone know of anywhere good to stop for grub and a rest half way between Mullingar and Westport ?

Keenans in Tarmonbarry does great grub!
It's just past Longford on the Mayo side!

When you drive over the Shannon you'll see Keenan's is the first building on your left, big place, hard to miss!

I would not eat in Ballaghdreen....not much there at all!

Fitzilicious

c montgomery wrote: »

i am for my sins

I am in the 5.30 am wave....sooner you start, sooner you finish and celebrate!!

g0g

So is someone gonna put up one of them table yokeys with waves to see who's where?

Had my first (and only!!!) brick-session-thing (if that's what it's called) yesterday doing 11/12K run then 20K cycle. Tough going but doable, although granted it was the easy Phoenix Park hills as usual! Any Garmin experts on here? I posted a question on the Garmin Megathread but no answer yet. I'm trying to figure out how to join a multisport event so it shows as one activity together. I tried yesterday and ended up with these two instead of just one. Any help appreciated!

One other thought - I find when switching from running (which personally I find MUCH more tiring than cycling) to cycling I'm just so thirsty that nearly all my bike fluid supply is gone right away! Bad idea I know, but I never got used to any of them tablet/gel things and couldn't be bothered starting now!

Ah well I guess it's just a case of cross the fingers at this stage!!

Mr Freeze

g0g wrote: »

Any Garmin experts on here? I posted a question on the Garmin Megathread but no answer yet. I'm trying to figure out how to join a multisport event so it shows as one activity together. I tried yesterday and ended up with these two instead of just one. Any help appreciated!!

Bad news for ya! Its not possible to join two events into one even if you did use multisport.

When multisport is turned on, it deliberately records each activity separately even though when using the watch, you see your whole progress over all events.

I had the same issue when doing a dualathlon and WAR...now I just leave it all under running and record the whole race and just press lap at each transition.

rebelreded

Just in case anyone is staying in Hotel Westport, they have just come back to me saying that they are doing an early breakfast on the morning of the event from 4.30am serving Pasta dish, porridge, bananas, tea/coffee and toast.
Delighted with that even though I don't know how I am going to force down some Pasta first thing in the morning!!!:eek:

pc11

Hi


I have a double room booked in the Hotel Westport for Friday & Saturday but now my companion can't travel. I'd be willing to swap the double room for a single in the same hotel if someone is stuck for space for 2.

We'd just need to figure out the difference in the price so I can get back a few quid!

PM me.

Wonkagirl

rebelreded wrote: »

Just in case anyone is staying in Hotel Westport, they have just come back to me saying that they are doing an early breakfast on the morning of the event from 4.30am serving Pasta dish, porridge, bananas, tea/coffee and toast.
Delighted with that even though I don't know how I am going to force down some Pasta first thing in the morning!!!:eek:

Fair play to them. The tourist board should make that mandatory in all hotels for that wend. Ive stayed in hotel westport before for a murder mystery wend and the staff there are excellent.

pasta at 4.30am though- GAG!

i'm gonna start to have breakfast earlier this week so that i can stomach it on sat morning.

starting to feel SICK now. :eek:

rebelreded

Wonkagirl wrote: »

Fair play to them. The tourist board should make that mandatory in all hotels for that wend. Ive stayed in hotel westport before for a murder mystery wend and the staff there are excellent.

pasta at 4.30am though- GAG!

i'm gonna start to have breakfast earlier this week so that i can stomach it on sat morning.

starting to feel SICK now. :eek:

I know, not easy to face at that hour. At least it will be about 7 before I go for brekkie.

It's the breakfast on the following morning that I am looking forward to.........Mmmm sausages!!!!!! (just went a bit Homer Simpson there!)

ThisRegard

Fitzilicious wrote: »

Keenans in Tarmonbarry does great grub!
It's just past Longford on the Mayo side!

When you drive over the Shannon you'll see Keenan's is the first building on your left, big place, hard to miss!

I would not eat in Ballaghdreen....not much there at all!

Cheers for that Fitzi, might make that stop depending on how I'm doing for time.

Staying in the Hotel Westport myself and they were advertising the early breakfast for Gaelforcers a few months back. I'd normally have no probs eating pasta in the mornings but I'll probably be sick of it come Saturday. Have myself booked in for a massage the next morning too, yay for me !

toomuchdetail

g0g wrote: »

Any Garmin experts on here? I posted a question on the Garmin Megathread but no answer yet. I'm trying to figure out how to join a multisport event so it shows as one activity together. I tried yesterday and ended up with these two instead of just one. Any help appreciated

g0g , I see you have a 305 , if you follow the inst on page 28 here you should be able to nail it , I had a 305 and it did the automultisports pretty easily but I think there is a limit to 3-4 sports in 1 event .
http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/984_OwnersManual.pdf

I now have a garmin 405 which is not as user friendly and cannot do multisports .
I have from experienced learned that trying to switch between events on a multisport event is time wasting and stressfull(if it doesn't reset etc) , I plan on setting my virtual partner on the garmin to a set pace and complete it in either running or cycling mode for the whole event , it should average out.

toomuchdetail

pat_hurley@yaho wrote: »

Anyone in the 5.30 wave?

Me too !!

watergal

g0g wrote: »

So is someone gonna put up one of them table yokeys with waves to see who's where?

Had my first (and only!!!) brick-session-thing (if that's what it's called) yesterday doing 11/12K run then 20K cycle. Tough going but doable, although granted it was the easy Phoenix Park hills as usual!


I was in there too yesterday afternoon. Did a 10 mile run and then hopped on the bike for an hour. Was lovely cycling around in the good weather could have stayed there all day going around in circles.. had to go pick someone up from the airport though,s o it was a short one.

Went for a cycle earlier tonight and had a very hairy moment when taking a right turn coming down a short hill. Went on the brakes and the back wheel decided to skid to the left ingto the car behind me. Had to hop off the bike to stop the skid as there was too much traffic.
Anyway that's the last of my cycling until Sat. Just hope its not wet or I'll be skidding all over the shop and will prob end up walking downhill as well as uphill with the bike !

funbaro

Hi,

If anyone decides to / has to pull out and has a double room booked in Westport for the Sat night can you please PM me?

Cheers and best of luck!

Adi CkonSh

Hi all, I'm a first timer, this thread has been great for us newbies, learnt loads on here, who needs to pay for a weekend training course!

FamousSheamus thanks for the details on the cycle, although I think I feel worse now knowing it's nearly all uphill, I live for coasting!

From Gaelforce:
The water stops will be highlighted on your map, provided at race registration, but you will also need to bring water yourself. You will need to have water from the start of the race and you can also have water/drink left on your bike. Water stations will be located at:
Killary Water site - start of Kayak
Delphi Bike Transition
Croagh Patrick Transition
Finishline

We will have portaloos at all the transitions along the route and also at the start. We will also have a few located along the bike route and these will be marked on the map.

In terms of the drinks on bike, I go very low tech and mix 200ml of ribena (full sugar) with 800ml of water and a pinch of salt, tried it out on a brick session on sunday in the sunshine before I even had any brekkie and felt like I hadn't even been out, it's great.

Good luck to everyone, just hoping I don't do anything silly now like falling off a curb or tripping over the dog!:)

g0g

CKWPORT wrote: »

Bad news for ya! Its not possible to join two events into one even if you did use multisport.
When multisport is turned on, it deliberately records each activity separately even though when using the watch, you see your whole progress over all events.
I had the same issue when doing a dualathlon and WAR...now I just leave it all under running and record the whole race and just press lap at each transition.

Thanks yeah that's what I feared! I think the watch has no problem with it, it's just the website when you upload! What do you do during transitions? Do you mark the time you spend at the kayak changeover as a "lap" or do you stop the watch then? If so, does that not mean when you re-start it it'll see it as a different event?

toomuchdetail wrote: »

g0g , I see you have a 305 , if you follow the inst on page 28 here you should be able to nail it , I had a 305 and it did the automultisports pretty easily but I think there is a limit to 3-4 sports in 1 event .
http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/984_OwnersManual.pdf
I now have a garmin 405 which is not as user friendly and cannot do multisports .
I have from experienced learned that trying to switch between events on a multisport event is time wasting and stressfull(if it doesn't reset etc) , I plan on setting my virtual partner on the garmin to a set pace and complete it in either running or cycling mode for the whole event , it should average out.

Thanks yeah I have no problem using the watch for it (after reading the manual at the weekend ) but it still won't upload ok. If I start on running then move to bike later on the watch can add it all together, but on Garmin Connect when you upload it treats them separately. That means GFW could potentially be 7 (run, kayak, run, cycle, climb, cycle, run) different activities on my upload.

cornishpasty

g0g wrote: »

Thanks yeah that's what I feared! I think the watch has no problem with it, it's just the website when you upload! What do you do during transitions? Do you mark the time you spend at the kayak changeover as a "lap" or do you stop the watch then? If so, does that not mean when you re-start it it'll see it as a different event?

You can press start/stop when timed-out waiting for the the Kayak and start/stop again to restart the clock when you start moving and it'll all be recorded as one event.

For me, to avoid having five separate running/kayaking/cycling events when uploaded to Garmin Connect, I'm going to set up the 305 simply as one event (running, not multisport) and press lap at each change and time-out with the start/stop whilst waiting for the kayak. I'll then have one event when uploaded to GC and will be able to view the times for each section.

Mr Freeze

Gog, there is no problem with the upload, thats the way it does it for multi sport, it uploads each activity separately, they are even stored separately in the watches history. It states in the manual somewhere that is does it this way you can better analyse each activity.

What I do now, is just press lap when I come out of each transition, I don't bother timing my transitions or using multisport. Multisport has to be setup before the race, and one wrong press of the lap button means you are fecked.

Also if you use multisport and allow transitions on the watch, when the watch is in transition this time is not included in your overall time when you upload. It only uploads the activities, the time is transition is not, this isn't accurate for a race like Gaelforce as all your transitions are included in your overall time.

c montgomery

Is the new section before CP really as bad as this and if so how long is it this bad for?