Time for a New Adventure

mossym

fair play. you're definitely putting the rest of us to shame when we talk about long days..:)

Neady83

mossym wrote: »

fair play. you're definitely putting the rest of us to shame when we talk about long days..:)

Thanks Mossy but the long days don't compare to the effort you and the other triathletes put into yer training sessions and yer races. Hope Hell of the West goes well for you, gutted to be missing it, I love watching that race on my home turf Hope the weather holds up for ye.

Neady83

Wednesday

6miles, 54:12, 9.01/mi
Very nearly didn't head out for this one, the humidity was putting me off but I felt a breeze come through the window in the office so I figured I'd take my chances. It turned out to be just perfect though I could have done with sunglasses, squint, squint, squint. Pace was dictated by very stiff legs. Not sure if it's from the circuits or the interval session yesterday but 9:00/miles felt comfortable and sustainable.

I've been reading the discussion on Tunnys page re. easy and recovery paces. My easy and recovery paces really are dictated by what I've done the day before and the weekend before. Recovery pace next week could be a hell of a lot slower after 24 hours of walking/hiking/pulling my legs through bog around Wicklow this weekend. I guess if I was on a running plan, it would be different and recovery runs would be the same all the time but with all sorts going on, my recoveries are are all different.

shotgunmcos

You are in for Rogaine too? With team Arse? ooh a Team #Triharder v Team Arse prelude

Neady83

shotgunmcos wrote: »

You are in for Rogaine too? With team Arse? ooh a Team #Triharder v Team Arse prelude

Yup, we're heading too, it'll be great to finally meet all of you. We'll be at a disadvantage though, only 3/4's of team ARSE can make it

I packed this morning because I've to head to the big smoke this evening for work. Was torn between trail runners, hiking boots, hiking back pack, trail running back back, long sleeves, short sleeves ........ so I have them all packed, the car is full The weather isn't looking too good for it

Neady83

Saturday: Rogaine 24hr Navigation Challenge

If you’ve read Career Movies race report you’ll know how it ended for team TriHarder ….. it went pretty much the same for team ARSE (we were minus one of the ARSEs for this one).

After meeting CM, AKW and MCOS, great to finally put faces to the names ☺ we gathered ourselves and did a final check of food and drink supplies for the next 24 hours. Knowing that the weather might be rubbish and having been warned by my hiking friends to avoid Wicklow like the plague (they did the Lug 50km in very bad conditions a few years ago & still bare the mental scars) I stuck on my trusted hiking boots but after surveying everyone else in their trail runners I figured it would be better to give them a proper trial run for the Beast – trail runners, sealskinz socks, gaitors & waterproof trouser, no water could get through that right? Wrong.

We marked our control points and decided on a plan of action. We figured we had three important points to consider, what kind of terrain would we like to be on when it got dark? what controls could we get when it was dark, as in what features could we distinguish in the dark and where would we want to be at twilight? We figured we’d get the well spread out higher pointed controls to the North during the first part of the day, use the roads when it was dark (pick up controls on rivers off roads etc.) and be heading South to pick up the cluster of lower pointed controls when it got bright.

Massive kudos to our head navigator John, he got us straight to each and every check point without hesitation, he’s a whizz with the compass and he has a stellar navigational partner in Frank. I just follow the leader It turned out the checkpoints to the North were quite far apart and the terrain was energy sapping. Heather that kept tripping me up and the heather that some farmer had burned attacked my gaitors & managed to pull them off twice. The holes, you can’t see them because they’re camouflaged & before u know it, one leg is gone down & you’re clambering to get back out, bog, soft soggy bog and marsh, stumps of long grass that you’ve to navigate around or over. It sucks the life out of your legs. I used my poles and helped a lot in the softer ground but there was still a lot of falling all over the place. I’d say I looked like a drunk woman wobbling all over the place.

It started raining at 10ish, just as it was getting dark so we started hitting controls on rivers off roads (we missed a 750 one though but only because we couldn’t see it & we figured that there was no point spending the night searching for it so off we went). It started to get miserable from here on in. I was getting so so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open. Shovelling dextros into me didn’t do the trick it usually does. My feet were sopping & I was counting down the hours until the rain stopped and the sun started to peek out. The going was slow now and we were nowhere near heading South, the checkpoints were so far apart, there was nothing but bog and heather underfoot and the weather was getting worse. In fairness though, we didn’t walk a meter extra than we needed to, John & Frank had us spot on at all times. By 7am, it was still milling rain & getting colder because of the increasing wind. The rain was really getting me down so I asked John if there was any benefit in us continuing on for another 6 or 7 hours in this weather, I figured this was a training exercise and navationally, the two guys had nailed it during the day and in the dark so we had done what we came to do. I can’t remember how it was decided but we figured we’d start to hit for home as there was a forest trail nearby that we could catch and take the road home from there. By the time we reached the forest track, it was clear that we were all suffering with our feet. My memory of the timeline is terrible because I didn’t have a watch so apologies if the times don’t match.

It was a long slow walk back to the start and we got there after 21 hours and 15ish mins on our feet. The sun came out on our way to the finish (Murphys Law) and we had some good laughs despite us all being crippled.

We learned a lot, mostly about our feet, those puppies really need to be cared for to get us through. We all agreed that it was one of the toughest days we’d had at the office in a long time. The C2C was a piece of pi** compared to it. It was just mentally and physically crippling. It’ll take a few days to recover from this one me thinks ….

p.s. sorry to anyone from Wicklow, it’s absolutely stunning, I love it there but for hiking, ya can’t beat the quartzite mountains in Connemara

shotgunmcos

Good call on the dark strategy, deciding what terrain you wanted to be on and sticking to roads. The rain and wind was brutal. It was a short but long night. I felt the very same as you. We had enough of a session and hardship banked to take to the Beast. That 750 up north was out in the open but you would want eagle eyes to spot it at dusk!

Well done neady and team Arse. 1 nil to you! Lovely to meet you too 😊

career move

There's not many calories at all in the dextros. I think one packet is only about 80. I had 6 x oat bars (200kcal) and a bag of crisps which was another 200. Maybe you need something a bit more energy dense?

I thought the Sealskinz worked well enough. The balls of my feet were burning after a couple of hours but when the socks got a bit wet they were much more comfortable and I had no problems with my feet on the last trek. I think I'll go with them in the beast even though I have a small blister on the ball of my foot this morning

annapr

In my (much more limited) experience, water on the Irish mountains will eventually get through everything!! Well done to all of you, great training. I'm really looking forward to the beast now

Neady83

shotgunmcos wrote: »

Good call on the dark strategy, deciding what terrain you wanted to be on and sticking to roads. The rain and wind was brutal. It was a short but long night. I felt the very same as you. We had enough of a session and hardship banked to take to the Beast. That 750 up north was out in the open but you would want eagle eyes to spot it at dusk!

Well done neady and team Arse. 1 nil to you! Lovely to meet you too 😊

Thanks Mcos, our two teams did well We even tried asking the sheep up North where the dang control was but they weren't giving anything away. They were miffed that we were after ruining they're nights sleep

Neady83

career move wrote: »

There's not many calories at all in the dextros. I think one packet is only about 80. I had 6 x oat bars (200kcal) and a bag of crisps which was another 200. Maybe you need something a bit more energy dense?

I thought the Sealskinz worked well enough. The balls of my feet were burning after a couple of hours but when the socks got a bit wet they were much more comfortable and I had no problems with my feet on the last trek. I think I'll go with them in the beast even though I have a small blister on the ball of my foot this morning

Thanks Kate, I was nobbling oaty bars in between the dextros but you're right, I think I needed jelly beans for that extra kick, dextrose work on the bike but not on the mountains. Another lesson learned

I don't think there's a person who was out there on Saturday night that doesn't have a blister this morning I'll use the sealskinz again but I'll get a back-up pair

Dory Dory

Homemade energy bars are what I'm all about for the moment when I'm on a long bike and need to keep going. (Thank you pointer for planting the seed!!!) They seem to be energy dense, compact, and agree with my tummy. (And not to mention, really delish!!) Super easy to make - I call them the Dory Bar.

Basic ingredients:
2 cups oats (I use quick oats, but any kind will do)
1.5 cups peanut butter (I use crunchy)
1 cup honey (I use local)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Heat peanut butter and honey in microwave (~60 seconds) to soften. Stir, then add vanilla.

In separate bowl, combine oats and other dry ingredients, such as (and these are what I use in the Dory Bar):
1 cup coconut (I use sweetened)
1 cup broken pretzels
1/2 cup almonds (I use lightly salted)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (I use dry roasted)
1/2 cup raisins and cranberries
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients in with peanut butter/honey, then spread with rubber spatula on greased cookie sheet to ~1 inch thickness. You can either refrigerate, cut and eat...or, bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (you will have to do conversion!) for 12-15 minutes, then cool, cut and eat. (I bake mine since they get gooey in the heat here while I'm on the bike - but do watch them while they are in the oven as they are easy to burn!) Store in refrigerator.

I just concocted a new Dory Bar today - dry ingredients, in addition to the oats were:
1 cup coconut
1 cup broken pretzels
1 cup macadamia nuts (I used dry roasted)
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup white chocolate
1/2 cup cranberries

Yummy - sweeter than the original Dory Bar, but quite tasty!

Neady83

Thanks so much DD, I'm gonna give them a go this evening I like the idea of the pretzels, salty nom nom nom

Neady83

Monday

Nada. Hauling my ass out of bed to go to work and staying awake at my computer was all I could manage. Thankfully I don't operate heavy machinery for a living. Monday evening was spent washing bog out of all my gear.

Tuesday AM

Planned an easy spin on the bike, alarm went off but I couldn't get up so snooze snooze snooze until it was time to get up for work.

Tuesday PM

AC fun 4km relay race. Instead of a session this evening, we had a 12km relay race, 3 to a team and 4km each. One of the guys had asked us to send him our 5km times and he took on the tough task of doing the maths and putting us into teams so that all the teams should, in theory, be able to complete 12km in the same time, making it a fair race. I didn't know the others on my team before I got there and I was hoping that they weren't super competitive because I wasn't sure what my legs were capable of. Turns out Orla had done a half marathon on Saturday and Eoin had done a 10mile race on Sunday and we all run 5km in or around the same time, so I didn't feel so bad that I wasn't going to be running well.

Orla went off first, did her two 2km laps and handed the baton to me, I felt good for this and just went off like the clappers before handing the baton to Eoin. We came 6th out of 28 teams so we weren't too shabby. There was no timing or clock, it was all a bit of fun. The best part was the last handover, the fast runners waited until last to go and were paired with slower team mates so they were literally the last out of the traps, they were jumping up and down at the transition waiting for their team mates to come in, it made for a nail biting finish. Oh and Supermacs arrived with pizza and drinks for us at the finish, I love my running club

I looked at my splits when I got back and I clocked up my fastest mile and kilometer to date. About 5 miles of running with 4km fast in the middle.

Wednesday AM

45mins on the Wattbike, 23.5km
My alarm went off so I got up to gather my gear, still wrecked tired so jumped into bed again but the guilt was eating me so I got up to do a small bit of easy spinning on the bike. Low gears and low watts, my legs couldn't do much more than that but it felt good to get them moving again.

career move

Brilliant racing on Tuesday!!! I wouldn't have run 4 metres never mind 4 km :eek:

Neady83

career move wrote: »

Brilliant racing on Tuesday!!! I wouldn't have run 4 metres never mind 4 km :eek:

Thanks CM, to be honest, if I hadn't had a team depending on me, I think I would have given it a miss. I'm still really tired and sleepy

Neady83

Thursday AM

1.5miles on the treadmill before circuits.

Circuits.
Different trainer for this so she had 17 stations set up with 60seconds on each of these & a 5 sec transition, two rounds. There was one where we had to hold a kettlebell, kneel down, one leg at a time, then get back up, one leg at a time. My knees weren't playing ball for this so I was doing all sorts of maneuvers to get down on my knees, trainer comes over to tell me how to do it right but I had to tell her sheepishly that my knees weren't right. l was like a 90year old, god dam you Wicklow.

Thursday PM

5.14miles, 44:55, 8:45/mi
Went out easy on this, didn't look at the watch, just went at what felt comfortable. Felt ok but my legs are still feeling the effects of the weekend. Have the Achill half marathon on Saturday, I'll be going very slow but at least I'll get to enjoy the scenery

Neady83

Friday

Rest

Saturday

Achill Half Marathon, 1:50 on the button
When we arrived at Keel the clouds were pretty much down to the ground so we couldn't see anything and I was thinking that this was going to be a sufferfest with the wind that was blowing. Luckily the rain cleared off before the race started but the wind stayed. This was never going to be a record breaking run but I had hoped to keep the 1:50 pacer off my back and I did until we crossed the line together I had heard that this was a hilly half but sweet j**us, the mountains after mile 8 were unrelentless and the wind was so strong I couldn't use the downhills to my advantage. I really enjoyed it until mile 8, the miles were flying by, I was running at what was a nice effort and I even thought I could be on for a pb but we turned into the wind after that and hit some really hard climbs and boy did I suffer, the last two miles were a killer but I was happy not to have walked any of it. I was thinking of Dory as I was pelting around and enjoying the views, it is really beautiful there and the local support was great They're super nice people. Would really like to go back and have a proper shot at it next year

Dory Dory

Yay!!! As you may know/remember, I've done that half twice, and it can be a brutal one! But the support is fantastic and the scenery is second to none. Some of my cousins were probably out there cheering you on!!! Well done, even if today wasn't record breaking for you!

Neady83

It is brutal, beautiful but brutal The scenery more than makes up for it though, I was so glad when the cloud lifted and everyone hit for the beach to soak their legs afterwards, it was brilliant Happy 4th of July by the way

Dory Dory

Thank you. Happy 4th of July.

career move

Well done. That's a great time after last weekends exertions! You must have legs made of steel

nop98

Neady83 wrote: »

There was one where we had to hold a kettlebell, kneel down, one leg at a time, then get back up, one leg at a time.

I actually think that exercise was the proverbial straw for my circuits career!

Neady83 wrote: »

Achill Half Marathon, 1:50 on the button

Brilliant running! You're really packing in some great sessions and results lately! And it sounds like an amazing HM, definitely one to fit in next year! I was last on Achill Island about a life-time ago.

annapr

Well done on Achill... great time. That's a beast of a week you just had, very impressive.

Just curious, what's your HM PB? and was that with actual tapering... ?

Neady83

career move wrote:

Well done. That's a great time after last weekends exertions! You must have legs made of steel

Thanks Kate, they're starting to feel like butter

Neady83

annapr wrote:

Well done on Achill... great time. That's a beast of a week you just had, very impressive.

annapr wrote:

Just curious, what's your HM PB? and was that with actual tapering... ?

Thanks Anna, I'd Achill on my to do list for so long that i couldn't let it pass & i was happy to just finish it i did 1:48:xx in Kinvara earlier in the year but I hadn't tapered either i know it makes no sense to be racing when I can't give it my all but himself does them and i can't sit on the sideline watching plus I do like doing them

Neady83

nop98 wrote:

Brilliant running! You're really packing in some great sessions and results lately! And it sounds like an amazing HM, definitely one to fit in next year! I was last on Achill Island about a life-time ago.

It's stunning, well worth a visit, there's loads to do between the Greenway, the mountains, the beaches and the nice cafés there's another half at the end of August i think if you want to fit it in this year

Neady83

Sunday AM

6.53miles Recovery run, 1:02, 9:34/mi
Had an hour to myself so thought I'd make the most of it. Kept the effort easy and felt all the better for it after.

Sunday PM
3.41miles Recovery run, 36:45, 10:48/mi
Himself wanted to do his own recovery run and wanted company so I said I'd motor with him. We ran by the river and stopped half way to dip our legs in and lie out under the sun, definitely the best recovery run I've had

Weekly Totals

Running: 5:02 (33.02 miles)
Circuits: 1:00
Wattbike: 00:45

Total: 6:47

Neady83

Monday & Tuesday

Nada. Feeling so tired and just bone idle lazy with no get up and go so did noting these two days. Couldn't drag my ass out of bed in the morning and worked late both evenings and used this as an excuse to not train in the evenings. After work I felt sorry for myself so I indulged in lots of junk food, chips, burgers, chocolate, nothing was safe

Wednesday PM

7.41mile run, 1:01, 8:37/mi
Woke up this morning feeling fat and unfit after my two days of lazy indulgence so figured I'd have to put an end to the junk train. I did this run before my circuit class, the pace was faster than I wanted but I miscalculated how long it would take me to run in from Salthill so I had to up the pace to get back in time for my circuit class.

Circuits
9 stations of all sorts of fun and games. I was picking up my usual weights but the trainer gave me lighter ones - he said that with only a short time to go to the Beast, the key is less is more and not to risk injury at this stage. He also said to start putting on some body fat .... does chips and chocolate count as helping to put on body fat?

Thursday AM

Circuits
10 stations of russian twists, mountain climbers, jumping on boxes, side planks, walking lunges, squats and all that sorta jazz.

Thursday PM

26.01mile cycle, 1:53, 13.8/mi
This was meant to be a 70 - 80km easy spin with my friend (and a catch up) but by the time we set off it was pi**ing rain and it was difficult to have any conversation. We hit out the Moycullen road, completely forgot about the road works and got caught in traffic for ages. By the time we got to Moycullen we figured we'd hit for Spiddal as there were some nice hills and even though it would be a shorter spin we'd test the legs a bit. Headwind, rain and fog all the way to Spiddal but we had a laugh about it anyway. Stopped in Spiddal for a coffee but as we were both soaked, getting cold quickly and there was a flood of water coming from my bike shoes, we decided to keep going for home. Short spin and no real pace but enjoyed it all the same. Must pick a better route next week because the traffic on those roads is manic.

annapr

I like your Monday and Tuesday activities... so you are human after all