CheGuedara - Log 2011

CheGuedara

January -

Haven't gotten the opportunity to put anything to screen till the month has finished!

Been getting as much sneaky training as I can when the thesis wasn't looking to wrap up the month with a cumulative 300km on the bike over 11h28, it's not a lot but I'll take it.


The log for the month is:

Donal Crowley Sportive
Thursday Night Training
Tralee - Kerry Head - Tralee
Thursday Night Training
Thursday Night Training
Tralee - Killarney - Tralee

All in all starting to feel good on the bike, not got any kick for a sprint yet but happy enough with my pace when left off to go up the road at my own pace - will be happy if I get the same distance in over the next few months and am really looking forward to getting my fitness back up.

First event I'm aiming to do this year is the An Post Tour of Sligo - not going for the double header of the Tour de Cure in the same weekend this year! Got caught unsuspecting in Sligo by Ladys Brae last year but was happy with my time and would like to do better this year.

Lastly to wrap up the post - describe the January training that was:

• The weather: cold, cold, COLD - sealskins road cycling gloves FTW for keeping fingers warm but if anyone knows of overshoes that do the same job PM ME! Cold numb feet after every cycle is getting old...
• Night training: fun. It's very hard to judge your speed, sometimes it feels fast when you're just tipping along and sometimes it feels slow when the bunch is storming down the road. The best (craziest) thing is the 8-10 person sprint in pitch black for the 60km sign on the way home - nucking futs!
• The bike: great to be back on it and it not be on the turbo trainer, can't wait for the light the come back and the warmth to come back to start pushing out the distances

Now just to shake off a touch of the cold...oh, and get back to that fv@king thesis!...

jerryqu

Hi ,
Cliff swears by lambs wool insoles - Ant is still scratching his head when i asked him did he stock them!

- I believe CH Chemist stock them, im def going to give them a try
J

CheGuedara

Think I'll pass on those - not much room in the Sidis at the best of times.

THESE apparently are quite good, will be looking into them before the next deep freeze

CheGuedara

Both an eventful and uneventful month for cycling -

Uneventful: not half as much milage as I'd prefer to have, only 5 rides making up 186km in the month.

Eventful: was caught up in a club mates crash which

1. put me off the bike for a week,
2. gave me very clear insight to the standard of some KGH A&E doctors (I believe the medical slang term is pumpkin positive). The nurses are clearly the brains of the operation there.
3. provided and excuse to get a new saddle

The Sufferfest got a look in at the start of the month - downward spiral is a great set and definitely one for anyone to increase their LT. Your legs will be jelly by the time it ends... Not sure why it didn't record speed but it'll be fixed for the next time the turbo sees action

Other rides were;

Thursday night training
Crash Saturday - ended prematurely because of the 'curious incident of the Yaris in the daytime'
Thursday night training
Tralee - Castleisland - Currow - Castlemaine

Pro's I'm taking from the month are that there's nothing broken from the crash and nothing really lingering outside of an occasional pang in the wrist, that I'm definitely feeling better on the bike and that hopefully I'll start to see some improvement in speed and get some longer distances into the legs soon. I'll have to - my registration for 160km in Sligo in May is already in! It's a good event (would definitely recommend it to anyone) and I'm determined to make a better climb of Ladies Brae than I did last year. Solid target #1 for the year.

CheGuedara

Had a good month on the bike this month, quite happy with it.

484km @ 26km/h average for the month - starting to get some good distances up and speed is a bit healthier than it had been previously.

Positive about doing a good ride in Sligo next month - the reversal of the route from last year means it's an all new experience again this year, but those Ox mountains are going to be as challenging as ever...

CheGuedara

Feel like it was a really good April on the bike; 570kms all in all and just over 21hr in the saddle

Can see my speed finally getting back up with 30km/h+ averages starting to reappear at training and distances starting to stretch out as well.

The log for the month -

Tralee - Glenbeigh - Tralee: Massive headwind on the way out made it a ride of two halves, not that it had anything to do with my PB on the Curraghmore climb on the way back to Tralee....

Tralee - Castleisland Bypass - Tralee; short ride with her of the small frame (47cm!) to get some kms in the legs and air in the lungs. Turns out she of the small frame has a competitive streak - on seeing another girl pedalling her way casually towards C'island one would have heard 'she's mine', heard the chain drop a gear or two, hands go to the drops and speed pick up. I'm inclined to take it as a good sign...

Tralee - Faranfore - Castleisland: First sign of pace coming back - climbing speed is still pants but going well on the flat

Conor Pass Challenge Route: Good Saturday spin, ITT'd it home from Inch. Great cycle. Anyone intersted in it pencil September 17th in the diary for the 3rd ed of the Conor Pass Challenge and 2nd of the Blasket Blast - we're hoping to make the biggest sportive on the peninsula even better this year!

Castlemaine - Faranfore - Castleisland: good speed again (starting to feel the first fast ride wasn't a fluke!)

Listowel - Ballybunion - Ballyheigue: Had the organiser of the Race the Ras on board for this one. A bit windy but a great bit of group work made it easier. Nice stop in Ballyduff for much needed coffee.

Castleisland - Faranfore - Castlemaine: Another fast one! If I can keep this up over longer distances that will be class! (as it happens I'll have to after signing up to stage 3 of the Race the Ras!)

Dingle CC 'Dingle Peninsula Challenge': Third ride organised on the peninsula in the month of April, only one I got to but based on reports the one with arguably the best weather; a tail wind on the Pass and fog clearing on the summit to give that classic view on either side and sea mist/fog clearing just in time to get the views around Slea Head. May have been light on signage & marshalls with a few riders ending up doing a no-stopper having not seen where to stop for a break (!) but had a great pace car controling the speed, warning oncoming traffic & closing junctions and one of the best foodstops I've seen at a club run event (when located); piles of choice and plenty to go around. I'd def recommend it as an early season sportif on the Dingle peninsula & it was made better for the vibrancy of the town with the weather over the weekend and feile na bealtine being on too. Chapeau to Dingle CC!

Next up Tour of Sligo (8th May) and RtR stage 3 on the 24th; if anyone would like to sponsor me a few yoyos to benefit the Irish Cancer Soc & GOAL as I'm attempting to stay ahead of the pro's for the 175km of the stage I've a mycharity.ie page and any sum donated is hugely appreciated.

CheGuedara

Well - I really good month on the bike this month. Garmin says it was 766.8km, 25.5km/h avg and just over 30h ride time.

High points were

• the Tour of Sligo which was as well organised as ever and challenging (redonkulous headwind for ~120/166km :eek:) - My review of the event is at this post
• A club ride to Kenmare and back (with a break in Jam in Kenmare for some practically life giving soup!)
• The Race the Rás Stage 3 - a really enjoyable day in the saddle and deserving more mention and the review I gave to ROK_ON does a pretty good job of summing it up:

It went really well despite the redonkulous winds forecast for the day! When I woke up (at 5am ) it was as still as grim death. Thought I was still asleep and dreaming!

Cue an inhaled cup of tea and a quick drive to Kilrush from Ennis to the start which was moved to 7.30am from 8am after the riders were destroyed by the winds on the previous Monday (there was some still pretty shell shocked by the day and the winds that were). I'd guess that we had something between 18 and 22 in my group and there was 6-7 hotshots that were ahead of us on the road on what looked to be as close to a 166km long team TT as I can imagine.

We rolled out finding ourselves with a slight tailwind which helped perk people up but the pace was pretty calm until Bunratty when myself, the event organiser and this huge Aussie struck off and had our own three man hammerfest as far as Adare where we stopped off for a food stop at Adare Manor (where I got 'member' parking for possibly the only time in my life ).

From there we had a pretty persistent headwind and sharing the draft was the order of the day - there was one small girl on the event and she suffered quite badly with the wind when exposed to it so the pace was somewhat tuned to keep those riders suffering from the previous days in the game. No harm and I did some long turns at the front to give them as big an assist as I could for the day that was in it.

The Bearna Gap outside Newcastle West was a surprising piece of piss and we rolled from there through Templegleantine into Abbeyfeale as a group.

Just as we were leaving a motor marshall rolled up & told us that we were only 20 mins ahead of the race which was back the road and descending the Bearna so this cued another charge by the event organiser and myself. I got dropped shortly after crossing the county bounds and HTFU'd up the Ahaneboy climb on which I was told by another marshal our ascent of the Crag Cave climb was off due to the closeness of the pursuing race riders but that if I hauled ass I wouldn't get caught on the descent into Castleisland. I figured at this point I was close enough to home and without a following climb to leave everything on the road so it was a case of drop a gear, up the tempo and head down.

I picked up the big Aussie left out of a support van on the climb and we blitzed the descent before regrouping on the way into the town. All us Kerry riders were moved to the front, a Kerry flag was delivered up to Mick Galway and we rode up the mainstreet and across the finish line to some great applause and cheers - pure magic!

The camraderie and craic on the road was excellent, the marshalling generally quite good, the support top notch short of a few sticky bottles and the finish the kind of thing that would definitely motivate you to try to do it eight days in a row - if I think I'll be able for it next year if I can I'm definitely going to see if it's a runner to do it.

I must thank all those that sponsored me for the event - your generosity has helped to raise more than €300 for the Irish Cancer Society and GOAL, so thanks so much for the support and chapeau to you!

• Conor Pass on the Double - heavy legs meant my climbing was almost as fast as falling up slope but really enjoyed getting this under the belt and still feeling strong at the end of a climby ~100km. Taking it as a sign of fitness proper actually manifesting itself.

There was of course several shorter training spins (+/-50km) and I'm getting to be consistent enough with the average speed tipping around 30km/h which I'm pretty pleased with.

So, Mays cycling (in spite of the incessant scairbhin wind) - two thumbs up! Looking forward to what road June brings!

CheGuedara

Another pretty good month put down on the bike - sweet!

Garmin says a total of 672km at an average pace of 28.8kph - 3152km in total this year - very pleased with those stats!

The month that was was despite continuing winds a pretty good one with fewer wet cycles than one might expect from a regular Irish June. Got a full spread of good Thursday training spins in that are usually 50-55km and going off with our faster 'Etape' group while meaning I get booted out the back on climbs means I'm having of give it full gas each evening. I definitely feel stronger on the bike for it. They'll be off over the next week, would love to be going over too but I'll have to wait to next year before getting a taste of continental cycling.

The weekend spins of the month were a good mix too with a Tour du North Kerry and West Limerick, Tour de Burren and Three Summits of the Dingle Peninsula squeezed in with one weekend passed up due to washout conditions. The latter route was supposed to be a run around Slea Head but due to heavy impenetrable fog on the climb and severe gusting winds at the summit the decision was made to do something else rather than risk a dodgy descent into Dingle. It was actually a good solid spin and the first time getting the Conor Pass, Gleann na Gealt and Curraghmore all in the one day. The Tour de Burren was as well run as ever - it's still the yard stick for other events to be measured against my review of the day is over at this LINK.

The new and unusual thing for the month was the Kerry Co TT Champs - 20kms of flat out fun on a Wednesday evening. I only get one or two TT's in in a year and I always say it afterwards - I really quite enjoy it, I really wouldn't mind getting into it a little more. Finished somewhere in the middle of the table I think but quite happy with my performance - there's no way I'd have managed that pace last year!

So what next up on the menu? A Club run around the Ring of Beara and the Trip to Tipp. Should be great.