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career move wrote: »we can pace/encourage/drag each other around
Should I be nervous about the prospect of trying to keep up with a part-time jockey / full-time lunatic cycling down some of the steepest hills in the country, even if you are on a glorified bmx (or will you have a proper bike for the occasion)?0 -
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career move wrote: »My bike has feelings too you know :rolleyes:
I love how you stuck up for your bike and completely glossed over my description of you
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career move wrote: »No not much .... few PB's that's all
When is H&B?
No pbs since the last one!
H&B was last Saturday. Late night, bugger all sleep, great weekend, managed to get home with nothing worse than a few bruises and cuts. Result!
Working late virtually every evening though, plus trying to get a car ready for nct retest and away all next weekend. It's not ideal prep.0 -
So my log has fallen into a state of disrepair again, much like my training. Really need to start getting back to some structured training. So the last activity logged was the Interceltique 10m on August 10th...:eek: It's going to be a struggle to remember what I did, which makes it fortunate that I never train without my Garmin.
Monday 18/08
Run in the woods - a shade under 8km in 48 mins. Avg HR 132bpm. I love running in the woods.
Sunday 24/08 - Kelly Cruise 50km
Dilbert Og Beag had asked me to do a 60km sportive with him earlier in the year as part of his Chief Scout award - as an alternative to a 20km walk. As it happened they pulled that option and he had something else on that day. So he, his Godfather and I ended up doing this instead. On another day it would have been a nice spin but it started raining about 2 mins before the start and didn't stop all the day. So there were a few crashes along the way, thankfully none involving us, and the novelty of sportives quickly wore off for him. But we got a good feed in Lismore and another one in Dungarvan so it wasn't a bad day out. Hopefully next year Mrs. D will do the 50km with him and I'll do one of the longer distances.
Tuesday 26/08
Run 10.5km in 53:50 - avg 5:07/km, avg HR 150bpm
Thursday 28/08
Killarney Adventure Race coming towards the front of my mind. Was collecting Dilbert Og Beag (Master Dilbert) from band practice so parked up a bit early and went for a run. Got in about 4.25km as a warmup and then ran 8 repeats of a hill in town called High Hill - for a reason. There are steps up - still haven't managed to run to the top and count them at the same time - but there are lots (more than 70 afaik). Ran down the slope beside them, though the steps might have been just as productive. 5.66km in 31:48, avg HR 146bpm (max 178bpm) but the auto-pause kept cutting in at the turn at the bottom of the hill, which was annoying.
Saturday 30/08
Cycle with Little Miss Dilbert. 7.5km at avg 14.6km/hr.
Sunday 31/08
Club cycle. 75.5km in 2:47. Avg speed 27.1km/hr (faster on the way home than on the way out), avg HR 131bpm.
Wednesday 03/09
Cycle. Planned to go straight after work but it was fish for dinner and I couldn't bear to microwave heat it afterwards. So I went out just about 7:30pm, expecting it to stay bright till nearly 9pm, so I planned to turn around at 8:15pm. When I did, I took off my glasses and discovered that the yellow lenses had brightened my view and it was very dusky. I had a visi-vest and a back light but no front light. I was in the middle of nowhere so knew that nobody would have a chance of finding me, so it was a matter of getting home as quickly as possible. This was proper squeaky-buns stuff. The first 1/3 of the trip was ok - I could see reasonably well. But it was pretty hairy after that - I ended up clipping the LED light onto the side of the visi-vest so that it could be seen from front and back. The roads were reasonably visible most of the time but where there were trees over the road it was literally black - I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Somehow, having slowed a lot, I got home in one piece and resolved to never ever let that happen again. 43k in 1:39, avg HR 143bpm.
Saturday 06/09
Master Dilbert was boating with the Scouts at Killurin outside Wexford so I dropped him down and went for a run. Gave myself a specific time to turn and happily reached Oylegate (8.5km) by then. Happily because it was about 1:50 when I started, with no lunch in me, so I was starting to feel dizzy at that stage.
Thankfully I brought my card with me so I went into a shop in the village and bought a sandwich & a bottle of something fizzy and sugary. Feeling a lot better I ran back to drive home. 17km in 1:25, avg HR 147bpm. Scouts not quite finished taking in the boats so one of the leaders invited me to take out a sit-on kayak. Myself and himself went out for a few minutes and it was good fun - but the boats were needed back on shore for packing up.
When I got home I had to meet a friend to get a document signed, so myself and Master D jumped on the bikes. Just under 27km in 1:12, avg HR 125bpm.
Sunday 07/09
Prep run for Hell & Back, happening in a community sports centre in a village the far side of Waterford. Cycled down 17.5km, ran the 6km course, then cycled home (knackered). Avg speeds 28.5kph (out) and 24.2kph (back). Avg HR 143bpm (out) and 137bpm (back). Run part was about 6km but was over obstacles so time is academic.
Monday 08/09
Started yoga. Only guy in a class of women. What odds. If I've to wait for a class of men then I'll be waiting.
Wednesday 10/09
Run 13.58km with 9 repeats of High Hill - total time was 1:15, avg HR 143bpm.
Friday 12/09
Pre-H&B run in the woods - 6.1km in 37mins, avg 132bpm.
Saturday 13/09
Hell & Back Titan with 45 other people from work (our 3 sites in Ireland). 12k, harder than the last time - more heavy hill running but unfortunately it was single-file a lot of the way, so was stuck walking for large sections. Was running with two guys from our site but twisted my right ankle a couple of times in close succession while descending and decided that discretion was the better part of valour and let them off. Ran the rest at a handy pace, crossed all of the obstacles and had good fun. Another late night but great craic. 80's music in The Martello FTW.
Monday 15/09
Yoga.
Sunday 21/09
Hellish week in work - working on the laptop at home till midnight several nights, having spent the early evenings trying to prep a car for NCT. Went to Dublin on Friday night, Belfast & back to Dublin on Saturday and home from Dublin on Sunday. Then went for a run - 22km in 1:53, avg HR 148bpm.
Sunday 28/09
Back in Dublin with Master D for a Scout triathlon (he was very miffed only to be allowed to do one leg of it!). So I left him in Malahide with his troop and ran over towards Howth. Didn't quite make it to Howth - was feeling the pressure and the humidity and didn't want to push it too hard. My left calf was feeling a bit tight too, so was concerned that it mightn't get me the whole way back. 22.6km in 1:57, avg HR 146bpm.
Saturday 03/10 - Killarney Adventure Race
I love Killarney National Park. Just wanted to get that out there - it'll be no surprise, I suspect, by the time I've finished with this. I spent several summers down there in my younger years, doing voluntary environmental work in the park, before family came my way.
Travelled down on Friday afternoon after the (unsuccessful:mad:) NCT. Weather was ok setting out but was pretty miserable by the time I got there. Booked into the B&B (Algret House - highly recommended, see Booking.com) and went to the expo. Got registered and narrowly talked myself out of buying a Helly Hansen jacket and a 2-person sit-on kayak (mostly on the basis that my poor car was jammed with stuff already). Met Career Move (with or without an underscore, I can never remember) and we dropped the bikes up to the transition at Kate Kearney's cottage for the next day. Went into town for food and a yak - always a pleasure.
Saturday morning I was up fairly early for breakfast. Got very well fed and headed off. Met CM along the way and we got to Gleneagles in plenty time. Bus brought us to Kate Kearney's for the start and I dropped the bottles onto the bike before a last pit stop and a few half-hearted efforts to warm up. Gear check, pre-race briefing and we're off. First k or two were grand, then the pull started and the surface deteriorated. We ran-walked up Strickeen, much of that dictated by what the people in front of us were doing. Just getting to the top of the climb the heavens opened and it got pretty miserable pretty quickly. Nevertheless the descent went well enough and soon we were down at T1.
I was using cleats so CM went ahead and I changed pretty smoothly. Had forgotten to change the gears to 1st before I racked it so had to sort that out. When I pulled the brakes for the first time I realised I had also forgotten to latch them after putting on the wheels, so I had to do that on the move. The bike also felt strange because I've been using an old racer for going to and from work and it's much smaller, so I felt like I was on my daddy's bike!
Quite quickly it became obvious that this cycle wasn't going to be a piece of cake. Some very steep sections and, as UpThe19th once said, if there'd been someone selling low gears I'd have bought a few. Not having Granny Gears, I had no choice but to keep the cadence up and power up to the top, then relax for a while when I got there. This worked reasonably well and I felt quite comfortable most of the time.
There were some nice descents along the way - as anticipated there was no way I could keep up with CM on these (talk about bravery) - but the in between bits were fine. There was one section where we were coming towards the Black Valley and there was nobody either ahead of or behind me for probably 500m. The birds were singing, the streams were running and the sun was shining - all I could hear was my tyres on the road and it was just heaven. I wouldn't have been anywhere else on the planet at that minute.
After another few climbs, we got to Moll's Gap, where the Run Killarney marathon starts. There was a lot of downhill after that. I freewheeled most of it because I was spending more time looking around me than at the road. It would have been a shame to miss it, tbh. There were a couple of places where I was tempted to stop and I think I did once or twice. Just stunning. Did I mention that I love Killarney National Park?
Next was the kayak section. I was about a minute ahead of CM into T2, so I'd time to change shoes. Unfortunately it didn't dawn on either of us to leave the helmets with the bikes so we ended up reaching the beach wearing them. Dropped the bags and helmets, got life-jacketed and grabbed a kayak. Water was choppy but CM was up front and probably getting more splashes than I was. Kayak felt like it was going sideways at times but we got around the nowhere-near-1.5km course in quick time.
Transitioned back to the run and getting pooped at this stage. Started eating ShotBloks like they were going out of fashion. Was tempted to refill the Platypus in my backpack but didn't (fortunately because there was loads left when I finished). The steps up by Torc were tough - in fact the whole climb was tough and the descent wasn't much easier, though the surface was much better than Strickeen. Attempted to steal a moment to enjoy the view on the way up but was unsuccessful in gaining any widespread support.:cool: Back down to the bikes and decided that, having to cross the scaffolded bridge on the way back, I'd be better in the trail shoes than cleats so I kept them on. As it happens they were fine on the pedals - there were no steep hills so I didn't really need to dig in at any stage. Got to T4 fairly handy and racked the bikes before the 800m run back to the finish. The closer we got to the bridge, the faster we got. Now I'll tackle most things willingly but heights, wobbly structures and me just don't mix well. So going up a ladder and across a scaffolded bridge was my least favourite part of the day. I actually started to get a wee bit dizzy at this point, just as CM was booting it away ahead of me (yes GLR13 all over again). But I dibbed in just 3 seconds behind her (I think) for a 4:12:57 finish and joint share of 216th position out of 508 finishers of the 60k. And I loved it. Garmin showed 59.2km but I'd made an ass of setting up the transition from the first bike to the kayak so there was running counted in T2. I'm happy we did the distance.
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/606493648
Sunday 04/10
Met my brother and his wife for an old explore of the old haunts in the park. Walked for about 2 hours and went and got the bike out of the car then. Cycled around by Dinis Cottage and back to the main road, took about a half hour and then went for another wander around Muckross. Finished my trip to Kerry with a wander around Ross Castle - until the rain intervened.
So what's next?
Dunno. Bike is still in the car. There's an adventure race in Tramore in 2 weeks (www.rockhard.ie, I think). Sea2Summit is on 2 or 3 weeks after that but is another long trip. Have to start work on my calendar for next year. There's another KAR on March 15th, then Dingle AR in early June. And loads of other mad notions wandering idly around my head. I'd like to pick an event that I might have a good chance of picking up an O40 prize in next year. Breakfast-eating might be an option.:D0 -
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You've no idea. Actually you probably do.
I can't won't imagine....career move wrote: »Here I'll give you a hint:D
Too tame CM. I think we could be a long way from kansas with this one....0 -
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This won't take long.:mad:
Monday 13/10
Yoga.
Sunday 19/10
Ballyhoura Boards MTB Spin with a bunch of Boards' finest. Was out at a dinner dance last night but left early (before midnight) and got to bed around 12:30'ish. Awake at 5, dozed till about 5:45 and decided to get up - I'd the alarm set for 6:15 and it's just as well I didn't wait for it or I'd have either been hungry or late.
Collected my rental bike (€35 for the day from Trailriders.ie) and did a few laps of the car park to get used to it - very different from anything I've ever been on before. Met all the other boardsies and got going. Being a newbie, I planned to stay at the back and not either slow down or bring down anyone who knew what they were doing. To cut a long story short, I managed that much. We went on parts of the white loop, did the two new technical loops and came home on the brown loop. Couple of hairy moments here and there - one bridge that had old tyres fixed to the outer edge for grip but you couldn't brake on the rest of it at all, tyres just sliding - and a couple of other spots where I felt like I'd barely escaped. I was getting tired too, my back and quads in particular. But towards the end I started to get my second wind and was starting to feel like I was getting into the flow of it. In the end it was over too soon. Had a nice cuppa and a hot shower afterwards though and a relaxed drive home.
But...
Pretty poor week of training, tbh, and I'm going to have to do something about it. If I keep doing the same thing, I'll keep getting the same results - less training, less fit. For the last couple of months I've kept going to bed too late, getting up in time for going to work, getting stuck there late, coming home for dinner and collapsing in front of the tv / going off doing other stuff. And therefore I've only been training at the weekends and it's not good enough. After several years of teasing Career Move and Runchick, I'm going to have to make a serious effort to get back to training before breakfast.:eek: So finger out.... let's see how long that lasts.0 -
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