Ain't nothing gonna break my stride....

Tom Joad wrote: »

Good stuff - will see how I get on this evening with it - can't see myself doing 90 mins though

It's a well known fact that women have to work twice as hard as men at everything in life so 45 min should do you!

SamforMayo wrote: »

Glad to see you have been taking it nice and easy:rolleyes: Only catching up now, thank god your retirement was short lived.

Aw you missed all the drama and now I'm back to my usual charming serene self. You shouldn't go on holiday you know!!

I was taking it easy. That's what caused the mental breakdown. Ha ha. The doc gave me the all clear to do whatever I wanted as long as it didn't aggravate my hip so now I'm in full Beast training mode. If I get through this week and I can still walk I'm sorted. Ha ha ha

Tom Joad wrote: »

Breast stroke was it?:D:D

Ya. Think Pamela Anderson. Baywatch. You get the jist

(bloody new poster rules......where's an emoticon when you need one)

tang1 wrote: »

You join my job?? Does suck the life out of you!!

Nah but I'd imagine it's similar in lots of ways ha ha ha

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Mental note: stop reading CM's log last thing at night.

Last night, after reading about your cycle, I dreamt I was touring around the roads of south Laois (I used to "hang around" that part of the world, not with CM I hasten to add for the sake of her reputation). As it happens I ended up visiting the other Career Move and found out she was a pantomime horse.

Now tonight you're talking about Pammy...oh dear...

Hahaha brilliant! You're having an interesting taper then???

career move wrote: »

Hahaha brilliant! You're having an interesting taper then???

Hmmm. And this log is evidently not helping!

A.M

1m easy @ 9:22

That's right folks. I ran a whole mile this morning!!!!! Well almost. I had to stop after 3 minutes to answer my phone. It was a lovely morning and my legs felt good so I said I'd risk it with the proviso that if I felt any muscle ache or nerve twinge or anything that felt wrong I would stop immediately. Felt really comfortable for the whole 9 minutes I was running and no aches or pains all day long either. BIG SMILEY FACE!

P.M

28km cycle to the gym. I wanted to use the rowing machine a.k.a HMS Torture but there was only one working and there was a woman on that and she looked like she was settled in for the evening so I went to the pool and did an hour swimming (about 500m) and aqua jogging. Then cycled the short way home = 19k

Where did your underscore go?

I missed the excitement! Glad to see that normal service has resumed!

A.M

Run: 2m @ 9:21

Sweet

P.M

Frigging back tyre was punctured so had to fix that. Took me a while cause I couldn't find the pucture and I had to get a bucket of water. Cycled 22k to the pool and then spent 40 minutes in the pool. Did 500m but couldn't be bothered with the aqua jogging because it's pretty boring. The first length was pathetic. I couldn't co-ordinate my arms and legs at all. My swimming is improving though. Slowly. I can now do 2 full lengths without collapsing or drowning although I still have an annoying habit of swallowing big mouthfuls of water. Then I cycled 28k home. Had a bit of an incident about 6 miles from home when this guy in the passenger seat of a navy car shouted something out the window at me as it was passing. I didn't really catch what he said but I stuck my finger up at the car anyway. It's an instinctive reaction when this happens or when people beep their horn at me when I'm running. The next thing the car swerves in and stops in the road in front of me. That's was a bit freaky so I just put my head down and booted it past. Kept a good pace up all the way home too!

Delighted to hear you are getting out running, pain free I hope. It s really difficult to improve swimming technique, I'm a strong swimmer but learnt to swim in the sea and I spent ages trying to correct my bad habits in the pool, I gave up eventually because it was putting me off swimming so fair play for sticking with it! As for the little gouger in the car he would need a clip around the ear;)

Yay I've got my linkies and smilies back!

Saturday:

A.M: 2m rec @ 10:30

Legs were knackered after the 50k cycling yesterday. No major tightness though so happy enough. In animal news ..... the baby peregrine falcons are learning how to fly and the cows have started calving. They woke me up at 6 am today they were making such a racket in the field outside my window. The cows are black Aberdeen Angus' and the bull they were with last year was a Belted Galloway which is black with a big white belt around it. So the calves are a cross and I think some of the mothers were a bit surprised when this little black and white thing popped out.

P.M: Ballyhoura trails ~30k in 3 hours

Met up with Mike and Sean for this in the evening. We did the 3 training loops while we were waiting for Warren. He said he got lost but I think he just got cold feet about meeting up with three random punters up the mountains. Then we headed up the brown loop. I found the mountain biking quite difficult this evening mostly because it was wet and the ground was slippy but also I think I was a bit tired because I was up at half four to work horses this morning. I found it hard to concentrate and my balance was crap. Fell over a few times and then on one of the descents near the end I hit a rock or something and my feet flew off the pedals. I lost control of the bike and then I hit a big tree stump and got buried. Managed to avoid two heaps of rocks and land in the heather. Luckily Sean was behind me to witness my spectacular flying descent or all I'd have to show for it was a banjaxed wheel and two bruised knees. Made it back to the car but my bike suffered a grievous injury to it's front wheel




Sunday: Beast team bonding session

Up at half four and out to Killaloe for an intensive day of biking and kayaking. As well as feeding us at midnight, putting up with our dirty bikes and clothes and giving us somewhere to sleep Mike's lovely wife was also kind enough to lend me her mountain bike.

1st section: ~33k
Bike to the summit of Moylussa, the highest point in Clare. We ditched our bikes and hiked up the last bit. Found the boulder we were looking for and the from our vantage point we could see the summit of the next mountain another 30k away. It was a bit overcast so the picture isn't great but the view was fab. Then we whizzed down the fireroad and on to our next peak



2nd section: ~ 30k

We headed across the bridge from Killaloe to Ballina in search of 'The graves of the Leinster Men' The ascent up Tountinna was painfully steep in places and I got off my bike and walked several times usually when my quads were sore. Then I walked until my calves were sore. Then back on my bike again. The view was incredible at the top and so expansive that it was impossible to capture it in one image with my phone.



The graves turned out to be further down near the road so we didn't have time to get to them because we had to be back for our kayak lesson. We bumped into PaulieYifter on the way down. He was nearly up at the top and looked like he'd barely broken into a sweat! I got a puncture on the way down which Sean kindly sorted for me in 4 minutes. Legs were feeling it at this stage after 5 hours biking.

Section 3:

2hr kayak lesson. Very useful and we picked up some great tips. Keep hands relaxed, right hand rotates the paddle, spread your hands out wide on the paddle, rotate your core instead of using your arms to paddle, don't drag the paddle back behind the level of your hips, paddle at a steady pace and let the boat float.

That's over 20 training hours done this week. Body feels good but tired. The dream is alive

Superwoman !!! I was getting tired reading all you done great to see you back running pain free too, fingers crossed for ya !

Heading up the trail on a Sunday morning I didn't expect to bump in to anybody never mind 2 people I know! You were all looking in great spirits. Just catching up on your log here and I didn't realise you've been injured otherwise I would have expressed all sorts of sympathy and well wishes.

Fantastic 360 degree views from the top of Tountinna. I found the Graves of the Leinstermen and I headed up and over the Laghtea Hill with the Millennium Cross. I'd had enough of hills at that stage so I ran back to Killaloe on the road.

Good luck with the rest of the training - I'd say you're feeling pretty tired today after that yesterday!

So what trail shoes did you get in the end?