A little bit of everything, just faster

nerraw1111

Tuesday 5km run 25km bike

Handy run at lunch time with a few strength exercises.

Fast 25km on the bike. Wanted to hold 30km for an hour but ran out of road and wanted to get home to watch the Giro. Settled for 28.6km for 25 mins with a few stops at traffic lights etc.

IMRA Glasnamullen/Djouce Loop 10.4km 463 metres

Superb new route. Open mountain, trails, fast technical downhills over a nice loop.

Hard to judge the race as you hit the top of Djouce after 4km with 6km left of running.

Not a fan of the start of this race as it’s a bit too fast for what is to come, lots of jostling for positions.

Still a bit off from where I was earlier this year and was finding the climb tough from early on. Lost one or two places but eventually go into a nice battle with 2 other lads of similar pace. A bit like cycling, the lead runner dragged me up the first half of the climb. Started to relax into the climb once the ‘racing’ was finished.

Legs were burning at the flat section which skirts around the mountain with the main ramp of Djouce still to come I sort of recovered quickly though and started to perhaps close the gap on those ahead thanks to the steady pace.
Djouce as always is murder on the legs and the cloudy summit when it came was a welcome sight.

No time to recover as it was straight into the downhill. I was hoping to take it easy going down but the stampede of feet behind me were gaining. Got to the front of your group and onto the Wicklow Way boardwalks. Again, no let-up in pace. Boardwalk is tricky and my lack of speed was holding up the chasers but lack of passing opportunities meant I held them off. We came off the boardwalks and turned onto a trail witha slight climb and then onto fantastic, rocky descent.

Was moving well and started to catch runners over the next 2km of steep downhill. Small moment of panic when we turned left to cover 800 metres of boggy/tricky flat terrain and thought I went too early. But survived that for the last 1km of downhill and caught another runner before the last corner which is always nice. Killer when it happens to you. Top 15 finish and seem to be back running well with no niggles etc.

Was a bit disappointed last week to be so far off the pace but this race was only a min or less back.

career_move

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Ten weeks to Beast of Ballyhoura.

I think only 9 This time 63 days Mike will be cooking us dinner Good to see you back into the swing of the mountain races.

nerraw1111

Saturday 16 miles, 4.50min km pace
Legs were fairly hammered after race so took it easy.

Sunday 100km bike 1200 metres climbing

Up over Sally Gap and Wicklow Gap with Laragh in between.
First 30km were horrible, felt awful, weather was closing in and stuck in no-mans land between Sally Gap and Laragh. Stopped for coffee and cake and then up Wicklow Gap. Felt better at this point and the last 25km were fine. Avg speed of 24km.

Tues 10km 4.30km pace
Steady run.

Wednesday 5km
Quick 5km before heading out.

Thursday 12.5km 380 metres
Lovely run around Ticknock with some nice climbs.

Saturday 10km 300 metres
Another run up at Ticknock

Sunday 24km (15 miles) 4.36min/km

Decent run. Legs felt pretty good throughout. Very warm and humid day which resulted in a bit of dehydration and a headache. Quick pit stop for a bottle of water after 13 miles.

61km total running last week

DogSlySmile

Nice week, you seem to be back at it properly now.

Had anymore thoughts about Stone Mad? I'm putting it all together now, going to be an expensive weekend!

nerraw1111

Yeah think I'm planning on doing it as part of training for the Beast. It's perfect timing, three weeks out.

What are the costs like? I was half thinking you could just show up, pitch a tent somewhere for the weekend? I just read there that you can add on extra €30 for some accom package. Which doesn't look like a bad deal given dinner and breakfast is included, along with massages.

DogSlySmile

its €120 if your doing the ultra and then €30 on top for the accommodation(on a school hall floor)/food which isnt a bad deal at all.

I'm bringing the GF so there will be no sleeping on a floor at all, at all, at all... So it will be hotels and restaurant dinners for me €€€ :eek:

Looking at driving down to Athy the morning of the race. Google maps says its an hour drive (I'll give it 90 minutes) so not too bad.

nerraw1111

Monday 8km recovery.

Planned to do a short bike session but I forgot I cycled to work that morning and had left work without it!
Legs felt pretty good after the 15 miles the day before so delighted with that.

Tuesday 41km road bike

Good ride and set a few PBs on Howth Head. Legs didn’t feel tired at all.

Wednesday IMRA Sorrell Hill 9.5km 365metre of climb.

Usual rush to make it to the start line. Strange race. I convinced myself that I was just going to enjoy the run, the views and the beautiful weather, rather than flog myself.

Started off conservatively and was feeling pretty good getting onto the open mountain after 2km. Was surprised to see I wasn’t that far behind the leading group. There’s about 2km of relatively flat/downhill section between first climb and second climb. It’s a bit boggy in places and I picked a few decent lines to avoid the worst of it.

Starting the final climb, I was feeling good and caught a few people and was gaining on others. At the summit, we turned and headed back the way we came. The first descent is very steep and a bit tricky. Took it easy here.

Unlike most out and back routes, there’s a bit of climbing still left that catches people out. Add some boggy terrain and it’s a struggle. I was chasing two in front and they started come back to me with about 3km to go.

I caught one of them and sat in, not wanting to risk blowing up. We had two fences to climb over before the end so put in a bit of surge to get ahead before the second last fence. That worked and gapped him and caught the other lad. Again, I sat on his shoulder and thought about putting a dig in to get ahead of him before the last fence as I knew it would be hard to overtake once over.

I decided against it and sure enough, was unable to get past him on the last descent and he hung on. Looking back, I should’ve made a move.
Good race, finding a bit of form.

Thursday 8km.
Felt a bit fluey heading out but nice run. Legs were very tired from the race. Full blown flu later that night.

Saturday European Marathon Championships – mountain bike 75km 1900 metre climbing Ballyhoura.


Decided to do this at the last minute as part of training for Beast of Ballyhoura.
I entered on the last day of entry on Thursday and later that day I was in bits with the flu. Undeterred, I had a few pints watching Spain and Holland on Fri night. That was mistake 1.

Preparation was less than ideal, a cheesy toasty in a garage and two cereal bars was my carb loading for the day. Mistake 2.

At sign in I realised I forgot my camelbak so had to use a bigger backpack which immediately marked me out as a newbie, the rest of the racers stuck everything in their race jerseys. Mistake 3.

Mistake 4 was thinking you could get food at the feed zones. You couldn’t. And all I had was 2 gels about two years out of date for the entire race. Luckily I bumped into shotgunmcos and got some figrolls from him which I ate straight away.

I decided to rent a bike rather than use my own one which was wise as the rental bike was pretty nifty and more or less brand new. Rented it at Ballyhoura for €30 odd quid. My confidence wasn’t helped when the guy renting me the bike assumed I was doing the ‘fun’ race and not the full 75km.
Somehow I made it on time to the start line and wisely started from the back.
The start was relatively relaxed and I settled in with a few other lads who were there just for the craic. I was mightily relieved that I wasn’t left for dust and my confidence grew when I actually began to pass people on the first climb.

The first single track section was a bit hectic. Riders were still bunched together so it was a bit hairy trying to keep up and not block those behind you.

Plan was to just get around so wasn’t going to push. The first serious climb was an eye-opener. You could see the whole field strung out, climbing this huge hill. Head down and I was spinning up the climb without too much effort, passing a few riders as I went. Eventually got to a stage where the hill was too steep and rough for anyone to cycle so had to push the bike up for the last few hundred metres.

Over the top and hurtling down the other side, rocks bouncing either side of me, dust everywhere.

The next few hours are a blur of climbing, tricky descents, more climbing and superb single track. The odd near miss/awful race line. It was a beautiful day and the legs felt good for most of the day. Caught up to shotgun around 40km in and we cycled together for a bit before he suffered a bit of cramp.

Took one gel at 20km and was rationing my last gel for emergency. It got tough around the 55km mark. The legs were feeling strong but everything else was in bits. Took second and last gel around 4 hours into the race. My hands were killing me. Had no gloves which left friction burns all over my palms making every descent v painful. Arms were sore from the punishing downhills, backside was battered and still had another 90 minutes left.

The worst part was I had to come through the start finish area for the last 20km so could hear and see that a fair few people had already finished!

Luckily, at the last food stop, someone had kindly left a spare powerbar so ate half of that and there was also some coke to drink.

Last hour was just a sufferfest of endless undulating trails I found difficult to ride. Every rock slowed me down. With 3km to go, I saw one guy almost passed out on the side of the trail, lying down and asking for food. I gave him the last half of the powerbar.

It was a sign of how fecked I was that I was concerned that I needed the half of the powerbar more than him to finish the last 3km. A marshal armed with a bar of chocolate was running up to reach the other rider so he must’ve been there a while!

I got passed by two people in the last 1km but couldn’t care less. Eventually finished in just over 5 hours and 15 minutes.
Next 20 mins were a blur. Had a burger, then a pizza, then a huge ice cream before I felt somewhat normal. Those MTB lads are made of strong stuff. The average rider was around 4 hours 20 or so. Didn’t come last so that was a bonus!

Great experience though, loved the first 55km. Superb organisation.

PaulieYifter

Brilliant - mad but brilliant!

career_move

PaulieYifter wrote: »

Brilliant - mad but brilliant!

And funny

shotgunmcos

Jeez you did very well given how underfuelled you were. Twas a tough day out alright but cool experience and good training! Every confidence in your fitness and ability to suffer, just need you to practice some night nav else we will have the people republic of Judea at every juncture