Yay! My first "decent" trip

lafors

Note: By "decent" trip, I'm referring to me, most of you could do this in your sleep I'd say

I'm eventually back onto dayshift after a month of nights, and since I only got my bike at christmas I've not had a chance for a proper tryout.

Beautiful day this morning so I decided to try howth and see how I felt when I got there about going up & around it. I left beaumont, down to clontarf & along the seafront, I got there easily enough so I went for the steeper side up, made it over and around, then back along the coast road and up malahide road. 36.2km in all (a daily commute for most of you )

It took me 1hr 30min 39sec, which I was happy with Here's the trip on sportstracker....
Sportstracker

So how would you pros consider it for a first trip? Be honest, I can take it!
My goal is to be able to make it on one of your weekend runs before the summer.

Also does anyone else use sportstracker? It'd be good to add people on it to see how they go.

peterk19

Just keep adding a few miles to it each time maybe go up and down howth a few times to help with your climbing too,

how do you find the sports tracker, i have it on my Nokia N95, i just find it very slow to connect to a satellite so have never bothered i usually think of a rough route and follow that glancing at the cycle computer every now and again to check my distance

Raam

Fair play. I'm always out in Howth so I'll wave to ya if I see ya.

scottreynolds

lafors wrote: »

My goal is to be able to make it on one of your weekend runs before the summer.

If you can climb howth, two or three times in a ride you can certaonly do one of the group rides. I climbed howth about 5 times and then went to wicklow no problem. its not about the pace as you pace is fine for the group ride it just about not stopping going up hill.

there's 4 routes up howth as well so you can very your workout.

P.S. I'm working so you have had a better day than me already.

blorg

That's not a bad speed at all, you should come out with us to Wicklow some time.

xz

24 kph average is very good for that distance starting out, I have been on club spins of 80 - 100 km that average around that, you have to take into account the hill, which would have slowed you.

All in all well done, keep it up, you'll be going on rides of twice that distance and more in no time,especialy if you get into some company like a club, or the boards spins. You won't get left behind, group riding is all about that, staying in a group.There will always be people to wait on you if you fall behind, and believe me, I've seen really good strong riders get dropped off the pace of a ride. Always remember, You WILL have a few bad days, but ALL the good ones outweigh them

eamonn q

Good first run. Why not come down to Naas GAA Club on Sunday 19th April and join us on the KARE Tour de Foothills and make that your first official trip and then you will get a taste of what Wicklow will be like. Visit www.karetourdefoothills.com to see route which takes in part of the Wicklow 200.
Cheers

lafors

peterk19 wrote: »

how do you find the sports tracker, i have it on my Nokia N95, i just find it very slow to connect to a satellite so have never bothered i usually think of a rough route and follow that glancing at the cycle computer every now and again to check my distance

Sportstracker is brilliant.
I've an N82, its the same phone as the N95 but in a different form-factor (shape). The GPS locks on immediately when outdoors, faster than the tomtom in my car, and even works indoors some of the time. I know they released a firmware update for the N95 which supposedly fixed the slow GPS lock on, maybe try that? I've also ordered a cover & mount for the phone so I can attach it to the handlebars so I can see my pace, which I don't have when its in the pocket on my back.

scottreynolds wrote: »

If you can climb howth, two or three times in a ride you can certaonly do one of the group rides. I climbed howth about 5 times and then went to wicklow no problem. its not about the pace as you pace is fine for the group ride it just about not stopping going up hill.

there's 4 routes up howth as well so you can very your workout.

P.S. I'm working so you have had a better day than me already.

I didn't realise there were that many routes around it? Must look it up on google maps. I'll have to drive out and leave the car at sutton cross and try doing a couple of runs around the head.

Raam

lafors wrote: »

I didn't realise there were that many routes around it? Must look it up on google maps. I'll have to drive out and leave the car at sutton cross and try doing a couple of runs around the head.

I have em all mapped out thanks to the Garmin. I'll stick em up later this eve unless someone beats me to it.