Time for a New Adventure

Neady83

Wednesday AM

60mins Wattbike (29km)
20mins wu
5 x 3mins high gear/2mins recovery
15mins cd

30mins Swimming
Bike followed by 30 mins splashing in the pool
10mins kicking
15mins pb
5mins swimming
This went better than usual, I was up and down the deep end without too much bother (still staying beside the wall should anything go wrong though.

Then on the bus and up to the big smoke for work so no PM training

Thursday AM

3.1miles @ 9:44/mi (30:00)
Treadmill style. I went outside to run along the Quays as (it’s the only place in Dublin that I know) but my watch was acting up and wasn’t showing the time and I had to be back for meetings so went on the dreadmill instead. Yuk, sweaty run.

On busses for the rest of day so didn’t get anything done in the evening.

Friday

45mins Wattbike (22km)
10mins wu
20mins 10sec sprint/30sec rec
15mins recovery
Musha, nothing to report.

15mins S&C
Badly needed foam rolling and some stretches

Saturday

8.5miles @ 8:39/mi (1:14, 303ft)
Rage run – was in dang good form by the time I’d finished ☺ Took in as many hills as I could to keep clocking up the elevation.

Sunday AM

30mins Swimming
10mins kick
10mins pb
10mins pb
There was a swim team training so the floor in the pool was lowered. The shallow end was deepish but it helped with swimming I think.

Sunday Lunch

Sonny Murphy 10mile, 1:19:33 (198ft), shiny new PB
On the drive from Galway I was writing this one off as a tick the box race. The weather was crazy, hailstones, mental wind, tree blown across the main Galway/Gort road – I couldn’t help but think of the poor peeps out in Connemara and what god awful conditions they were facing.

Anyway back to business. I lined up with my brother and we both agreed that we wanted to be anywhere but the start line with the wind in our faces. The race went like this ….

Mile 1: Sugar, I thought we were further up in the crowd, why are we stuck in the masses. Don’t weave, don’t weave. Spy my brother belting past me and think, ya f**ckin ejit, too fast, I’ll see you later buddy Nice man at 1 mile marker calls out the time, 7:58 – I’ve been doing all my runs lately by effort, I turn on my watch, stick it in my pocket and run at what feels comfortable. I’m really enjoying not being a slave to the watch.

Mile 2: We’re STILL facing the wind, I thought we’d have turned right by now and have some sort of shelter, oh here we are, right turn. Ah here, how can the wind still be blowing in my face and be sooooo strong. So hard to fight it. Hello brother, I shout at him that he’s going too fast as I pass him … he stays on my shoulder.

Mile 3: I want to stop, I can’t fight the wind anymore, how about I just walk this really windy bit, it’s costing too much effort to keep running. Wait, can’t let my brother down, can’t let myself down in front of my brother, keep running. Another nice man at mile marker 4 shouts 31:48. Oh ok, keep going.

Mile 4: We turn a corner and the wind is finally at our back. Ok, buckle up, brother is still on my shoulder and I need to use this wind as best I can.

Mile 5: Nice man at 5 mile marker shouts out 38:50, holy cow, trying to do maths while running is tough. I was at mile 6 before I figured out that I was within reach of 1:20. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it – oh no, I can’t do this for another 5 miles.

Mile 6: Brother Ger is starting to fall off a bit, wind is at my side now and there are twigs that have been blown down all over the road.

Mile 7: Down hill and into Corofin. I know that I’ll get a lift here from the people that are out cheering in the village. Starting to feel weak, shoot, maybe I didn’t eat enough this morning. People cheering yeaeeeeee. Lovely woman says that there’s only a few girls ahead of me and that I should catch them – ha, there’s no girl in sight, I just need to focus on getting myself to the finish.

Mile 8: Up hill and into the wind again, aghhhhhhhh. Will this ever be over. I catch a guy that passed me earlier, pull just ahead of him and I hear another set of hooves coming on my left, they both stay on my shoulder but it’s enough to keep me motoring.

Mile 9: Down hill and up another hill. Two fellas still tailing me, there’s no shaking them.

Mile 10: Thanks be to god this is the final one, I’m screaming inside. Low and behold the massive hill at the end isn’t as massive and pointy as I remember. I spot the 500m sign and think that 500m is still too far to have to run. We round the last bend and straight into the wind again – is it coming from all directions? 400m and I’m finding it hard to breath with the wind in my face. Pass 300m and think this must be the slowest 300m in the history of the state. 200m, look up, see 1:19 something on the clock and something happens. My legs involuntarily start to sprint. Fell over the line, found the first wall that I could and draped myself over it. Brother who didn’t run comes over to check …… how his twin is and where did I leave him? Brotherly love eh?

I wasn’t expecting to knock over a minute off my pb but I had a handy week training wise so my legs were fresh and I really think not watch watching is helping me run better. Next up, sub-1:19.

Splits: 7:56, 7:56, 7:52, 7:48, 7:46, 7:48, 8:01, 7:57, 8:03, 7:58 (24secs somewhere or other)

20mins S&C
Lovely lovely foam roller

Weekly Totals:
Running: 5:00 (35miles)
Cycling: 1:15
Wattbike: 1:45
Circuits/S&C: 1:50
Erg: 0:15
Swimming: 1:00
Total: 11:00

Dory Dory

Fantastic running!! Congrats on your pb!!!! Whoop whoop!!!!

career move

Great stuff Neady

jake1970

Well done Neady, congrats on the PB.

nop98

Yeay, PB! Well done Neady!

mossym

well done neady. that's a tough day to be setting pb's. nice calm day and you'll fly under 1:19

Ososlo

Neady that's fantastic! Brill pb on a rotten day! Fair play to you. You'll knock another chunk off that next time round no bother to ya!
Hope you recover well and quickly!

diego_b

And well done on the pb, sounds like you had a great fun in the conditions!!

Dilbert75

Great stuff S. And continuing good work in the pool too!

Neady83

Dory Dory wrote: »

Fantastic running!! Congrats on your pb!!!! Whoop whoop!!!!

career move wrote: »

Great stuff Neady

jake1970 wrote: »

Well done Neady, congrats on the PB.

nop98 wrote: »

Yeay, PB! Well done Neady!

mossym wrote: »

well done neady. that's a tough day to be setting pb's. nice calm day and you'll fly under 1:19

Ososlo wrote: »

Neady that's fantastic! Brill pb on a rotten day! Fair play to you. You'll knock another chunk off that next time round no bother to ya!
Hope you recover well and quickly!

diego_b wrote: »

And well done on the pb, sounds like you had a great fun in the conditions!!

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Great stuff S. And continuing good work in the pool too!

Thanks all, looking forward to giving the distance another go in calmer conditions

Neady83

Monday AM

60mins Wattbike
25mins wu
5 x 3mins grinding it on high gears/2mins rec
10mins rec with a few sprints thrown in
Legs are feeling the pinch from yesterdays race, it’s an odd feeling isn’t it. They’re stiff but in a satisfying kind of way – it’s the first time they’ve been stiff after a race for a while so it’s a good indication that I wasn’t giving it 100% in the last few races, definitely not at the last 10km I did. I gave it all yesterday and I can feel it.

Spinning them out did them the world of good.

15mins erg
First 7.5mins felt great but then my bum started bothering me. I haven’t been blessed with a Kardashian butt, quite the opposite. There’s no flesh at all in that area so there’s no padding between the bones and the seat. It’s very unpleasant.

I found some solutions on the Concept2 site – I may not have my feet in the right position and could be leaning back too far. Will adjust next time.

Monday PM

45mins Spinning
We had to give our usual Monday spin a miss because it was still raining and Annette hadn’t gotten her gear dry from her cycle yesterday – so we settled on a spinning class.

Oh sweet baby jesus, I forgot how hard and intense these classes are – this one was specifically for a cycling club out the Athenry way. We did Sally Up, Sally Down on a very high gear – barf – but a good one to incorporate it into my Wattbike routine.

3.4miles @ 8:54/mi (30mins/107ft)
Out for a few recovery miles after dinner to stretch the legs – they were getting tetchy. I have to incorporate a hill into every run now – Thanks G&R, great challenge for the month.

15mins S&C
Lots of foam rolling, twisting and stretching.

Tuesday AM

5.1km Erg (28mins)
I stopped short of using bubble wrap as a cushion, as suggested on the Concept2 website - a towel did the trick just as well. I didn’t lean back as much either so wasn’t rocking on my sit bones as much, this made for a more comfy half hour.

Circuits: 9 stations @ 4x55secs
1. Squat & ball throw (5kg difficult to get a handle on squishy ball)
2. Kneel to stand using dyna band
3. 4xburpees & 4xcontact jumps
4. 5xpush-up & plank & 4xshort sprints
5. Lunge & hop, lunge and hop
6. Bear crawl forward & reverse
7. Mountain climbers & wall runs
8. Pushing 5kg weight across the floor at break neck speed
9. squat & side walk with dyna band
My glutes and thighs were cramping up by rep 3 of the fifth station, hopping out of a lunge burns like hell. By station 6 I was starved with the hunger and I was wiped at the end. Not a bad mornings work. The legs are still feeling the pinch from Sundays race though.

Tuesday PM

9.5miles @ 9:45/mi (90mins – 216ft)
This wasn’t supposed to be such a long run and the pacing was all over the shop. First 2.5miles @ 9:00/mi. Met Kieran and did 3miles at a handy pace, he kept stopping and starting so I was running off and coming back to him, I was dizzy from all the looping around.

I was starting to get a dodgy tummy at around 5 miles so dropped Kieran home, used the loo and took some crystallised ginger and it did the trick. I took in Taylors Hill and went up around Circular road to add some elevation on the final stretch.

Was pretty stiff by the end.

15mins S&C
15 minutes on the floor rolling and stretching in the hope of loosening out before the weekend.

Neady83

Wednesday AM

60mins Wattbike (30km)
25mins wu with drills
(Sprints, 30on/30off, 60on/30off, 90on/30off, 60on/30off, 30on/30off) x 2
1 x Sally Up, Sally Down @L10 Mag 7
CD

Wednesday PM

6.53miles @ 9:11/mi (60mins – 369ft)
Legs still stiff around the groin so decided to hit for the hills again in an attempt to loosen them out. Circular road has now become my stomping ground and it makes a nice change from the flat pitches. I ran up Circular road three times, twice from the Westwood side and once from the lights at Westside. I’ve a big weekend of climbing ahead so this was gently does it style.

Circuits: 6 stations @ 3x100secs
We started off as usual with some dynamic stretches, power lunges and the likes and then into the weighty stuff.
1. Fast step-ups on the step with 5kg weight held over the head (straight arms)
2. Lunge walk with 2x10kg & spider crawl crawl
3. Some kind of split squat arm wrestley movement with a resistance band
4. 5xdead lift/5xstraight arm lift/5xsteering wheel – all with 10kg
5. Backward lunge and overhead press (2x10kg dumbbells)
6. Plank slides :eek:

Dilbert75

Briefly ignoring the L10 Mag 7 which totally chicks me, what's:

1 x Sally Up, Sally Down @L10 Mag 7?

annapr

Great running in the 10 mile Neady!!! love your descriptions of the wind congrats on the PB! you're getting stronger all the time!

Neady83

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Briefly ignoring the L10 Mag 7 which totally chicks me, what's:

1 x Sally Up, Sally Down @L10 Mag 7?

Eh 4 minutes at L10M7, was goosed after that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A2V9Bu80J4&list=RD6A2V9Bu80J4#t=0

Stand up when you hear Bring Sally Up, sit when you hear Bring Sally Down - keep grinding it out. Promise me you'll try it

Neady83

annapr wrote: »

Great running in the 10 mile Neady!!! love your descriptions of the wind congrats on the PB! you're getting stronger all the time!

Awh thanks Anna, I really appreciate it. All the time I was running, I was thinking of how god awful it must have been in Connemara. Hope you're all set for going stateside

Neady83

Thursday AM

12mins Erg
Just had time to warm up before circuits.

Circuits: 8 stations @ 3x100secs
1. Boxing: 20 punches & 5 jumping squats
2. Boxing, 2 straight/2 side/ 2 hooks & 5 jumping squats
3. Inch work with 8 rows at the end (2x4kg)
4. 5xburpees (2x5kgs) & dynamic lunges
5. Split lunge and overhead press (8kg)
6. Russian woodchop (8kg)
7. Dead bug & push-up planks
8. High plank slide
Legs still stiff, poop.

2.8miles @ 9:00/mi (25mins)
Lunch time with my 5km work buddy. She’s blinking flying it and dragged me out for this because I had zero motivation but it was just what I needed ☺

Thursday PM

60mins Swimming
Swimming lesson time. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had a lesson as Kate was away and there were holidays and what not so I was glad to get back into it this evening. I knew there was something wrong with my kick – I wasn’t moving well with the kick board so we spent most of the time on that.

I was bending my knees and kicking from there. We righted that and got down to doing a few lengths. I got 4 full lengths done, mind you I was heaving like someone who smokes 40 a day at the end of each one. I really hope this gets easier.

I’ve a real problem with the deep end though, as soon as I cross the line into the deep end, I focus on keeping going and stop thinking about my kick and keeping my legs together – it falls apart a bit. Going from the deep end to the shallow end, when I cross the line, my swim becomes more fluid and streamlined. I don’t do it intentionally but I have a lot of bother with the deep end.

She gave me things to try to relax me in the deep end. Letting go of the wall and dropping down to touch the bottom and dropping down a hoop and going down to pick it up. I know that I’ll float back up when I go down but it feels like the most unnatural thing in the world to let go of the wall in the first place – I really have to build up to it. Agggghhhh it’s so frustrating.

Steroo

Keep up the swims- it's mad what the mind does in the deep end at the start , that'll fade.

Great PB too

Dilbert75

Steroo wrote: »

Keep up the swims- it's mad what the mind does in the deep end at the start , that'll fade.

Great PB too

+1. I learned to swim when I was about 6 or 7 but even still I was having those feelings when I went back to it last year. But it fades, just as you stop thinking about single lengths and start counting in multiples of 50 & 100.

Neady83

Friday

Rest …… until 11pm anyway

Saturday

135km Night time road biking (6ish hours, 2,511ft)

It was that time of the year again, Maam Turks challenge time. The challenge is organised by the mountaineering club in the University and I’ve been doing it every year since I started hiking. The 25km route runs from Maam cross, takes in all of the Maam Turk mountain range and finishes with a long descent into Leenane.

We checked the weather during the week and as it was looking promising we figured that we’d tack a night roadie cycle onto the start of the challenge. I put a call into a few other AR peeps and Lonan from Team IKAT, his friend and Rachel from Team Rachel’s Irish Adventures joined Frank, Jacqo and I.

We parked at the bottom of Corcóg, where we would start the hike the following morning, at 11pm Friday night and headed West for Clifden. From there, we took the sky road and followed the route that the Gaelforce night sportive will take next weekend, Letterfrack, Tully, back through Leenane and back to the cars.

We couldn’t have chosen a better night for it – the moon brightened up the road for us and while there was a gentle cool breeze, it wasn’t enough to make us cold. The roads were quiet so we made the most of having the place to ourselves. The view of the moons reflection on the calm ocean was breath taking and we were lucky to spot some shooting stars. We were kinda killing the moment with our terrible renditions of N17 and the Green & Red of Mayo.

A piece of the gawd dang cleat on my shoe broke off at the bottom of the climb into Letterfrack, I got some bit of purchase on the pedal so when we got to Tully, while the guys were double checking the map to make sure we took the correct road, I was riding up and down the town so as not to stop – saying hello to the revellers on their way home from the pub. The rest of the hills were interesting with my left leg having to do most of the work in case the right slipped – Dorys single leg drill do have their uses ☺

Jacqo from team Arse was having a bit of a sufferfest of a cycle so we were slower than anticipated and we left her to get some rest in Leenane while we peddled on to the bottom of Corcóg. On each hill on the way to Maam, I was imagining the peeps from here that did the Ultra, marathon and half last weekend – those hills are steep, I was glad to be on the bike and not running them.

Maam Turk mountains (12hours, 25km, 2,236m)
After a quick transition and a bite to eat, we were ready and hitting for the hills. Rachel and Nolan had to head home early so they did the first third and headed back to the cars, leaving Frank and myself to it. We were sorry to see them go, we were having good fun with them - training with new people is great to liven things up.

While it’s only a 25km walk, the challenge of the Turks is the terrain (energy sucking bog holes and slippy muddy descents). You drop all your height three times and there’s plenty more climbing in there too. It’s fun on challenge day though as there’s plenty of people to be chatting to as you’re walking away.

I was registered for the challenge so we had the map marked with the checkpoint coordinates we were given. We tried to ignore the people on the mountain and pretend as if we were in unfamiliar territory so Frank had the compass out and we navigated our way to the checkpoints. Of course the checkpoints consisted of tents that were manned by fluorescent covered people so they were a lot easier to spot than control points.

I found the hike really really long, it was physically tough but that I cope with, I just felt like we’d be there for hours and hours. I asked what time it was at one of the checkpoints and it was only 10:30 – I could have sworn it was after 1 o clock. We bumped into some adventure racers that we had shared taytos and tea with in a pub in Newcastle during the Beast last year - you could bump into anyone on these hills. We'd a laugh again about that night.

Franks knees were starting to bother him so he told me to belt on. I did but then I remembered that he wasn’t registered (I’d have no idea where he was if he didn’t come back) so I thought I’d go as far as the Col, the point where you get short coursed if you don’t reach it by 5:30pm, have a break and wait for him if the sun was still shining. I was more than a bit tired when I got to this point – there were a few hikers there with poles and bags left around the place. I saw what I thought was a mountain bike and for at least 10 seconds I was trying to figure out how in hell someone got a MBT up the mountain and what they wanted with it up there. My senses returned and I looked again – it was just hiking poles that were thrown in a way that they kind of resembled the frame of a MTB. Definitely time to go home and get some sleep. I was in a right slump here. A group of about 26 walkers passed while I was stretched out and they were being nice and asking if I was ok and able for the climb ahead, I was in a hoop mentally so I think I was grunty and possibly gave them the stare of death. I hope they didn't take it personally. It was just as well that I waited for Frank because I needed the company and after a bit of chatting, my spirits lifted again.

Frank arrived and we took on the Col of Despondency – the last climb of the day, also the longest – it has three false peaks. We arrived in Leenaun around 6:30 so all in all we were out for 16-17 hours. I did a nice bit of training during the week to test how this would go on tired legs and I was happy with how the body and mind held up. I’m much stronger on the bike this year thankfully, I’ve learned how to eat and drink consistently on it so I was feeling good going into the mountains.

Weekly Totals

Running: 3:25
Roadie: 6:00
Circuits/S&C: 3:45
Hiking: 12:00
Erg: 0:55
Swimming: 1:00
Wattbike: 2:34
Total: 29:50

ThebitterLemon

Jesus that's an savage weekends activity.

Well done, reading that made me tired

TbL

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

Some serious training going down over here. Well done.

career move

Super stuff Neady. Sounds like a great training session! Be sure and go easy on yourself next week

Firedance

chryst, I need to lie down after reading that!!! well done Neady, that's quite a training session!

Neady83

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Jesus that's an savage weekends activity.

Well done, reading that made me tired

TbL

Cheers TBL. If I'd know you were in the country, I would have asked you to have a hot cuppa ready for us at the bottom of Corcóg during transition

Mohammad Gorgeous Bike wrote: »

Some serious training going down over here. Well done.

Cheers Jackyback, not a whole lot of quality but I'm getting the hours in.

career move wrote: »

Super stuff Neady. Sounds like a great training session! Be sure and go easy on yourself next week

Thanks CM, it was a confidence builder, it's amazing how quickly you get used to not sleeping through the night. Thanks, all easy stuff this week (and plenty of iron rich food).

Firedance wrote: »

chryst, I need to lie down after reading that!!! well done Neady, that's quite a training session!

Ha ha thanks FD, if you get that racer, I wouldn't mind doing the night cycle again We could finish it with a run up the Hell of the West.

Neady83

Monday AM

3.35miles @ 9:16/mi (31mins)
I was planning on spinning the legs out on the bike but when I woke, my legs were fine but my arms and shoulders were stiff so I figured a light run would be the order of the day to shake them out and not put much pressure on the shoulders.

30 minutes was just enough to loosen things out.

Monday PM

8.81miles @ 8:49/mi (30mins – 237ft)
My arms were still stiff so another run with a few big hills thrown in was the alternative to the pool. This felt good but I was tiring on the last mile or two as these were the flattest of the run.

10mins S&C
Mostly upper body and arm stretches

Tuesday AM

20mins Erg (3.7km)
Arms still holding on to some fatigue, boooooo

Circuits: 8 stations @ 4x55secs
1. Side jumps speed game with cones
2. Push 5kg weight 75m/pull it 75m in high plank position
3. Lateral squat walk with resistance band
4. Jump/burpee with push-up, repeat
5. Single leg push-ups with resistance band around shoulders
6. Medicine ball side shuffle
7. Sprint & backward crab walk
8. Side plank with leg raise
This was exactly what I needed to loosen up the limbs.

Tuesday PM

60mins Wattbike (32km)
60mins steady @ L2Mag2 with 4xSally Up, Sally Down @ L10Mag7
This should have been an easier spin but my legs were feeling fresh and I was feeling in form so I went a little harder than planned – was goosed by the end and not feeling up for the run I had planned. Need to keep reminding myself that I can run and it’s my bike that needs the work so from that perspective, this was good.

annapr

Started reading your report above... Oh Neady is going on a hike, no wait it's a cycle... No, an all-night cycle and an all day hike :eek: Well done, spectacular place for it.

Dilbert75

Ok I give in: sally up, sally down?

Neady83

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Ok I give in: sally up, sally down?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=99395556&postcount=646

Dilbert75

Neady83 wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=99395556&postcount=646

Ahhhh....can't figure how I missed that. Makes sense....must try it sometime....