Gaelforce west 2016 training

Coolrunner

Hi

I am a 38 year old male participating in gfw on Saturday. I have only been able to train for 3 weeks due to personal circumstances. I have a good base fitness as I retired from senior football only a year and a half ago and was always in the top 3 /4 fitness wise. I have trained hard this past few weeks cycling and running but am wondering have I bit off more than I can chew! Has anyone participated under similar circumstances and completed the course!

Lusk_Doyle

Coolrunner wrote: »

Hi

I am a 38 year old male participating in gfw on Saturday. I have only been able to train for 3 weeks due to personal circumstances. I have a good base fitness as I retired from senior football only a year and a half ago and was always in the top 3 /4 fitness wise. I have trained hard this past few weeks cycling and running but am wondering have I bit off more than I can chew! Has anyone participated under similar circumstances and completed the course!

I did it two years ago with feck all prep. Believe me that you will see all sorts of body shapes and sizes at this event. Enjoy it. Tis a tough one!

Coolrunner

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Coolrunner wrote: »

Hi

I am a 38 year old male participating in gfw on Saturday. I have only been able to train for 3 weeks due to personal circumstances. I have a good base fitness as I retired from senior football only a year and a half ago and was always in the top 3 /4 fitness wise. I have trained hard this past few weeks cycling and running but am wondering have I bit off more than I can chew! Has anyone participated under similar circumstances and completed the course!

I did it two years ago with feck all prep. Believe me that you will see all sorts of body shapes and sizes at this event. Enjoy it. Tis a tough one!

Cheers for that. Good to know I potentially will not need to be helicopter rescued!

Lusk_Doyle

I saw one guy while waiting for the canoe and he must have been at least 22 stone. Easily.

The first run is grand. Watch out for the large stones on the slopes of the bay when it goes off road.

The canoe is a piece of p1ss if you are with someone who understands timing. The problem with this is the transition can take ages (up to 1 hour) due to the numbers and the amount of canoes. Very annoying as you buildup body warmth only for it to go again. They may have sorted the logistics of this out by now though.

The next run is a mix of bog and road and is grand.

First cycle is next. Nothing special about this until you get onto the bog road heading for the mountain. This is tough if the wind is against you. Real tough. I struggled to get above 10 or 11kph on this due to the wind strength.

Up and down the mountain next. Tough and slippy. I hope the weather is good for this. Pure awful place if its windy and wet.

Second cycle next. Techincal and great fun. Well, maybe if you are an experienced cyclist. Try to ride the sceilp full without stopping.

Final run. A few kms including some technical forest trail.

Cracking event. I'd have done it again myself this year but wantes proper conditioning to have a real go at it. Next year.

Coolrunner

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

I saw one guy while waiting for the canoe and he must have been at least 22 stone. Easily.

The first run is grand. Watch out for the large stones on the slopes of the bay when it goes off road.

The canoe is a piece of p1ss if you are with someone who understands timing. The problem with this is the transition can take ages (up to 1 hour) due to the numbers and the amount of canoes. Very annoying as you buildup body warmth only for it to go again. They may have sorted the logistics of this out by now though.

The next run is a mix of bog and road and is grand.

First cycle is next. Nothing special about this until you get onto the bog road heading for the mountain. This is tough if the wind is against you. Real tough. I struggled to get above 10 or 11kph on this due to the wind strength.

Up and down the mountain next. Tough and slippy. I hope the weather is good for this. Pure awful place if its windy and wet.

Second cycle next. Techincal and great fun. Well, maybe if you are an experienced cyclist. Try to ride the sceilp full without stopping.

Final run. A few kms including some technical forest trail.

Cracking event. I'd have done it again myself this year but wantes proper conditioning to have a real go at it. Next year.

First class run down of event thanks for taking time out to write that.

You've made it sound so easy that I wonder why I bothered training at all Lol

Think I'll give it a proper go next year also if I enjoy it Saturday. What was your time out of interest when you did it last?

Lusk_Doyle

Coolrunner wrote: »

First class run down of event thanks for taking time out to write that.

You've made it sound so easy that I wonder why I bothered training at all Lol

Think I'll give it a proper go next year also if I enjoy it Saturday. What was your time out of interest when you did it last?

5 and a half hours approx but I have a story about it for you...

I did the event with my bro and neither of us had done it before. We went off in the last group and apart from one other guy, we were by a mile the strongest runners in that group. We were way ahead of the rest when we came to a bog wall and the other chap turned right amd began to climb up the hill alongsude the wall. This was near vertical. We should have gone straight over the wall but assumed the other chap knew what he was doing. The net result of this was an up and over and back again or approx 25/30 mins of wasted time and effort. I reckon that it cost me an hour overall due to fatigue.

Coolrunner

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Coolrunner wrote: »

First class run down of event thanks for taking time out to write that.

You've made it sound so easy that I wonder why I bothered training at all Lol

Think I'll give it a proper go next year also if I enjoy it Saturday. What was your time out of interest when you did it last?

5 and a half hours approx but I have a story about it for you...

I did the event with my bro and neither of us had done it before. We went off in the last group and apart from one other guy, we were by a mile the strongest runners in that group. We were way ahead of the rest when we came to a bog wall and the other chap turned right amd began to climb up the hill alongsude the wall. This was near vertical. We should have gone straight over the wall but assumed the other chap knew what he was doing. The net result of this was an up and over and back again or approx 25/30 mins of wasted time and effort. I reckon that it cost me an hour overall due to fatigue.

Jaysus not good that. I definitely cannot afford that kind of set back. I have a feeling I could be needing a piggy back up reek with mr 22 stone!

mr spuckler

i did it 2 years ago with loads of the wrong prep! very little run to bike to run training etc. i had a really tough day and was way off my target time but still really enjoyed it.

having sunshine at the top of croagh patrick would have been a god send but it wasn't to be.

my one simple piece of advice would be to pace yourself until you know how you're going and obviously get plenty of food and drink in. also the hardest part of the first cycle (imo) comes at the end just before the croagh patrick climb so keep something in the tank for that. as lusk_doyle says the technical bit in the second cycle was brilliant craic if you can keep going the whole way through. dodging walking cyclists on this section was almost the hardest part

the organisers claimed that those issues with the kayak delay have been rectified, apparently one of the boats used to bring the kayaks back each time didn't turn up on the day so they were left well short.

Lusk_Doyle

mr spuckler wrote: »

as lusk_doyle says the technical bit in the second cycle was brilliant craic if you can keep going the whole way through. dodging walking cyclists on this section was almost the hardest part

We got a few "what the fcuk?" as we came flying past some people stopped or walking and us two belting straight down over big rocks and gullies, etc. That was really enjoyable that part.

Peterx

Coolrunner wrote: »

Hi

I am a 38 year old male participating in gfw on Saturday. I have only been able to train for 3 weeks due to personal circumstances. I have a good base fitness as I retired from senior football only a year and a half ago and was always in the top 3 /4 fitness wise. I have trained hard this past few weeks cycling and running but am wondering have I bit off more than I can chew! Has anyone participated under similar circumstances and completed the course!

You'll be grand, literally hundreds of people have completed the course with exactly that amount of training and much less senior football history.
The first run is longish, if you take that relatively easy it will set you up nicely for the rest of the day.
Croagh Patrick is just hard, there's no easy way to climb it but sure from the top it's downhill to the finish.
The cycle has rough sections of bogroad with loose stones so making sure you have good tyres well inflated is important.
The kayak is really short, don't worry about it.
There's a horrible little 2km run to the finish after the last cycle, it ends eventually

Lusk_Doyle

Oh yea - I used my cx bike. Most people were on road bikes but with wider than normal tyres. You don't want the tyres to have too much pressure in them as you would be more susceptible to creaming yourself on a rock or getting a puncture.

Coolrunner

Thanks for all snippets of advice / experiences. Much appreciated. I just hope I have enough energy after to stay up to see mr McGregor.

Lusk_Doyle

Well? How did it go?

Coolrunner

Lusk_Doyle wrote: »

Well? How did it go?

Went ok....ish. Had good enough start with first run to kayak then second run to the cycle. Kept up with mate at this stage who finished in top 70 in end up. Took cramp then after this at start of cycle stage trying to push foot into cage which fecked me later at the steeper hills with cramp again to calfs and shin which never had before ever! really struggled to sit on bike seat for bumpy off road lanes as arse was too sore. This was my fourth go on the bike! Could hardly walk either when pushing bike due to some fecking muscle at top of left leg which left me dragging my leg when walking and when the driving rain started on the uphill stony cycle area I was literally moving more in reverse and i began to ask myself would if I would be better off if someone shot me as the off road lanes seemed never ending! Didn't even bother with croagh Patrick which was part closed up anyway due to poor conditions and poor visibility and also cos I could hardly walk and would have needed a stretcher or a helicopter to get off the mountain guaranteed!. Then smooth roads again on bike downhill but I couldn't even sit on the bike by this stage so had to sit on top of leg lol Didn't think I would make it to finish line but I got there despite the last part through a wooded area being nearly impossible to keep standing due to the glar of mud and rain. Was feeling very sorry for myself st this stage lol. Never was as sore ever but will be back with proper training to give better account next year.