Toiler's Constant

BUACHAILL

Was a member in Coollattin for years, love it around there for the wildlife and scenery.
Where is the festival on ? in Macreddin itself ?

Sorry Just clicked the link there....duuhhhh

Kurt Godel

BUACHAILL wrote: »

Was a member in Coollattin for years, love it around there for the wildlife and scenery.
Where is the festival on ? in Macreddin itself ?

Sorry Just clicked the link there....duuhhhh

Coolattin is just down the road from me- most of my running is done on the old estate (now trails). I've ran the golf course a couple of times, but holding of membership for when my knee decides to totally give up the ghost! Yep, great scenery around here all right.

The pheasant they are selling at Macreddin slow food festival comes from Coolattin estate. My wife found a piece of shot in hers tonight:)

BUACHAILL

You wont find a nicer course or value for money in Wicklow anyway so your lucky its on your doorstep, Lets hope its a while before your needing a golf bag though !!

Nothing like a bit of shot in your food to bring in that primal feeling :-)

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Good to see the knees are holding up again to the increased run mileage. Perhaps we could push you out to a 6 week marathon training plan next time around

Krusty_Clown

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Sat 18k easy
I ran from home, along backroads, to Macreddin.

Macreddin Village (Actons) is also home to a microbrewery, though if you scratch under the surface, it seems their beer is made by White Gypsy in Templemore. Still some damn fine beers to be sampled. I'd imagine it would be a perfect ending to an 18k easy run.

Kurt Godel

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Macreddin Village (Actons) is also home to a microbrewery, though if you scratch under the surface, it seems their beer is made by White Gypsy in Templemore. Still some damn fine beers to be sampled. I'd imagine it would be a perfect ending to an 18k easy run.

I had a pint of something nice and wheaty while watching the first half of the rugger match. All was well with the world:) Fine place for scratching, all right, is Actons.

Which reminds me- the Wicklow version of Boards Xmas beers is always mooted but seldom done. Would there be any interest in staying over at the Glenmalure Lodge some evening? Or somewhere similar? Pick a spot (even Laragh?), run, swim, or bike, there from our respective abodes, sink a few decent ales, home the next day?

Kurt Godel

Tue 2,000m swim

Steady all the way, first time back in the pool for a while, felt like a good aerobic stretch. I've ordered the Garmin Swim, that should help me with the swim structured sets. I want to maintain 3 swims a week over the winter, at least one sets, at least one long and slow.

Kurt Godel

Tue pm 7km hilly tempo run

I'm told this was slower than last week, but it felt harder (certainly towards the end). No real running began until about halfway up the long hill, with PN taking up his familiar show-off position. Around by the church, and he opened a gap going back down the hill to Tinahely. I was part of a chasing group of three down by the school, and the pace was starting to quicken. The gap to PN was getting shorter, he must have let go down the hill. I was tiring, and as we turned up the steep hill for the final loop, the two lads with me opened up a gap, which was pretty large at the top. For the remainder of the loop I had footsteps chasing me down, and they weren't letting up. All along the final KM I was chased, and upping the pace to a good effort. We finished together, and I spent a minute dry heaving- second helpings of dinner an hour previous.

These club runs are brilliant, a great way to push hard in training.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Which reminds me- the Wicklow version of Boards Xmas beers is always mooted but seldom done. Would there be any interest in staying over at the Glenmalure Lodge some evening? Or somewhere similar? Pick a spot (even Laragh?), run, swim, or bike, there from our respective abodes, sink a few decent ales, home the next day?

Sounds like a plan

Abhainn

Celine Tall Molding wrote: »

Sounds like a plan

+1

Dory Dory

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Which reminds me- the Wicklow version of Boards Xmas beers is always mooted but seldom done. Would there be any interest in staying over at the Glenmalure Lodge some evening? Or somewhere similar? Pick a spot (even Laragh?), run, swim, or bike, there from our respective abodes, sink a few decent ales, home the next day?

Celine Tall Molding wrote: »

Sounds like a plan

Abhainn wrote: »

+1

Dammit!!!! :mad::mad::mad:

shotgunmcos

Would actually love to come up to Wicklow and sample some of the fine trails

Kurt Godel

I'll look into venue, with a date over Dec/Jan. With the agenda of getting as many folk tired and sweaty in front of a blazing fire in some mountainous pub/B&B in deepest Wicklow. Run the 66k from Marlay to Glenmalure. Bike around the Wicklow 200 and end up in Laragh. Swim from Limerick up the Grand Canal and divert down the Liffey. Whatever it takes, lets try and get a good few overnighters, and make a good bash of it

Kurt Godel

Thurs 45 min turbo

Sufferfest. They really know how to make the time pass usefully.

5min WU 3/10 effort
A) 4min 7/10 with 3x15sec 10/10 bursts
2:30min 8/10 w 2x15sec 10/10
C) 3 min 3/10
Repeat ABC for three total sets
5 mins 3/10

I had the door open, cool enough in the room, but I still was dripping sweat. I don't especially like cycling, but I sort of like the structured training a turbo set entails.

Oryx

Kurt Godel wrote: »

I'll look into venue, with a date over Dec/Jan. With the agenda of getting as many folk tired and sweaty in front of a blazing fire in some mountainous pub/B&B in deepest Wicklow. Run the 66k from Marlay to Glenmalure. Bike around the Wicklow 200 and end up in Laragh. Swim from Limerick up the Grand Canal and divert down the Liffey. Whatever it takes, lets try and get a good few overnighters, and make a good bash of it

An overnighter with a group of tired and sweaty guys in lycra. Yup, thats going to go down a treat here in Stepford.

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

An overnighter with a group of tired and sweaty guys in lycra. Yup, thats going to go down a treat here in Stepford.

Ah ya will ya will.

I'm actually looking at a map of Kelly's lough, with a view to making an offroad "Tri" out of it. Start at Glenmalure lodge, run along Wicklow Way, cross river and run up zig-zags to Kelly's Lough, swim Lough, and I'm wondering how far up we can get a load of Mountain Bikes, and trail back down to the Lodge for tea and crumpet. Or just forget the bikes and make it a social trail run/swim optional.

Oryx

Kurt Godel wrote: »

Ah ya will ya will. You can stay in my room if you're worried one of the lads will hit on you, I'll protect ya.

Jolly decent of you, man.

I'm actually looking at a map of Kelly's lough, with a view to making an offroad "Tri" out of it. Start at Glenmalure lodge, run along Wicklow Way, cross river and run up zig-zags to Kelly's Lough, swim Lough, and I'm wondering how far up we can get a load of Mountain Bikes, and trail back down to the Lodge for tea and crumpet. Or just forget the bikes and make it a social trail run/swim optional.

Ow in December. And I thought I was loopy. I cant ride mtb. Well, I can, but I fall off lots. So trail run with assorted craziness would be fine by me. Just need to see who I can rope in to come as partner-in-crime chaperone.

Kurt Godel

Oryx wrote: »

Jolly decent of you, man.

I edited that out, its called hiding in plain sight its not appropriate for a hard-assed Tri log.

Oryx wrote: »

Ow in December. And I thought I was loopy. I cant ride mtb. Well, I can, but I fall off lots. So trail run with assorted craziness would be fine by me. Just need to see who I can rope in to come as partner-in-crime chaperone.

Great stuff, and if the bikes don't work out (don't fancy doing too much logistics) we can always run back down. Great part of the world, Glenmalure. The Lodge there is a fine place to be of a dark winters night.

I'll present a "done deal" in a few days and see who will sign up.

Krusty_Clown

+1 (at least for the run parts. ).

shotgunmcos

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

+1 (at least for the run parts. ).

Don't you have a MTB? All in or All out Clown!

nerraw1111

A dip in the lake? Sweet jesus.

Will try and get down for some of it. Could combine it with a recce for Art O'Neill.

Kurt Godel

Whoooo-bloody-hooooo! Just got a phone call, I'm on a team running the Moonlight Challenge tomorrow evening:D The route has changed from last year, it looks shorter, but a lot more interesting. Base to Paddock Hill, follow the WW down to Glendalough, across to the lake and up the Spink (views should be incredible if the moon comes out to play), around to Mullacor, and follow the WW back down to the Glenmalure Lodge, for a well deserved pint. Can't wait!

Also, this run is doing justice to an incredible act of generosity from Dory, who posted over her remaining Euro's to give me the required €75 donation to Mountain Rescue. I will raise a glass to you tomorrow, you beautiful benefactor!

Dory Dory

A grumpy old fecker A little birdie told me you were getting an invite. I'm beaming for you. Slainte. x

Solobally8

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Would actually love to come up to Wicklow and sample some of the fine trails

We could travel up together- I call shotgun

shotgunmcos

Solobally8 wrote: »

We could travel up together- I call shotgun

Ha ha. Cool. You got shotgun... since hoochiedoubledee aint around to smack dat ass So thats one spot in the shotgun wagon.. happy to squash a few in the back with the wetsuits.

Kurt Godel

Sat 20k hill run ("Moonlight Challenge")

The tri club had a couple of teams entered, one guy couldn't make it, so I managed to get a spot at the last minute. This is a fundraiser for the Mountain Rescue team, who run the whole show from start to finish. They are all volunteers, get paid €0 for the huge amount of work they put in, and this is one charity where you know 100% of the funds are going to be spent in the right way. Thanks to Dory for her generous donation, I had the mandatory €75 fundraising along with my €25 entry, paid it at the MR base, and headed off into the night with a couple of others from the club.

The first climb up and along Paddock Hill was a sample of what was to come, packs of walkers on the trail ahead had to be negotiated. There was a much higher ratio of walkers than runners, but in the main they were very accommodating in letting us past. Sometimes though you'd get caught up in congestion at stiles, and a big gap would open to the lads running ahead. No bother, over Brockagh section, and I slowed going down the steep downhill. Knee's as ever, are the limiter.

Across to Glendalough, through the graveyard (stopped to try and get some pics, nothing came out though), and over along by the lakes. There wasn't much moon out, a sliver at best, but if I dimmed the headtorch all the stars radiated in their splendour. Up to Checkpoint 3, and begin the run up along the waterfall, and then we were at the steps up to the Spink. Here the two boys took off from me, I started to feel jabbing knee pain from the climb, allied with sore soles from the minimal shoes I had on. The staples in the sleepers were cutting in to the ball of my foot with every step. I didn't really enjoy the sleepers, and there was a fair bit of passing that needed to be negotiated, so progress was slow.

From the top and off the sleepers, it was very wet and stony, hard to pick out decent passage. The views here were the best though, if you looked bac you could see a long line of torches snaking up the hill. Coming down into the forest the MR lads had assembled a rope hold along the tricky descent, I grabbed it as I ran along, and it made progress easier. The final 5k were mainly downhill, along hard trail, and mostly uneventful except for seeing the moon set across over Cloghernagh. Sharp stones towards the end of the trail were jabbing, but then it was hit the road for the finish. A nice feed of stew back at Glenmalure Lodge, and a quick pint before heading home. My feet are very sore right now, if I do hill stuff again (I'm limiting it) I'll have to wear more cushioned footwear. Good way to spend the evening though, I slowed a lot on the Spink climb, but finished in about 2:12 or so. Very well-organized event, although its more geared to the walkers. I'd say MR were happy with the result from it, deservedly so, well done to them.

Kurt Godel

There'll be quite a few turning up for this run/swim/bike lark, and heading back to the pub for a bit. I've provisionally booked two triple rooms. No money has passed hands yet, but I'll need to confirm soon. So far I've not heard back from anyone who definitely wants to stay over (€35 pp), so please let me know ASAP if you're staying the night. If I don't hear back from many soon I'm going to drop the booking down to one room.

There's no onus on anyone to stay over if they don't want to, in any case we'll have a few drinks after on Sat evening, people can leave when it suits them too.

Kurt Godel

Tue 1250m swim

My new Garmin Swim watch arrived, so I can finally forget about counting in the pool, and let the watch do the numbers. I'm still getting used to the watch, so this was very much a trial swim. I shared the lane with a guy doing drills, decent swimmer, we didn't get in each others way. My body has been aching since the hill run, this swim was a way of loosening it out.

The watch itself seems to perform brilliantly, you'd hardly notice it on. The display is easy to read quickly, although you need to turn your arm to see it, and that entails stopping your stroke. I did 600m to see how it was working, pressed stop, started straight away to make up 1000m, in about 19mins. Rested until 20, then took off again, this time working on my turns. Checked at about 750m- darn, hadn't pressed start hard enough, no data! The next 250m was slow enough, I think the new turn technique was slowing me.

Very happy with how the watch performed, and the graphs and data will be most useful in charting swim progress.

Dory Dory

I always wear my watch so the face is on the inside of my arm, not the outside. Perhaps this would help with you not having to turn your arm to read the watch??

Kurt Godel

Dory Dory wrote: »

I always wear my watch so the face is on the inside of my arm, not the outside. Perhaps this would help with you not having to turn your arm to read the watch??

Good idea Dory, I'll try this next time.

Tue PM 7km hilly tempo run 31:32

Same backroads route from Tinahely as the past few weeks. I went hard enough up the first hill, coasted for a bit coming down, ran the loop at a decent clip, died a bit on the final hill, so the lads got away from me, and picked up the pace again to finish the second loop strong.