My God, it's full of stars!

Tuesday 8th February

Evening run
Time: 33:05
Dist: 6.04 km
HR: 149 bpm
Cad: 176 spm
Pace: 5:29 per km

Slightly better conditions today. Some weirdness from right knee. Either vastus lateralis or hamstrings. Easy to confuse the two at the point it feels "off", similar to ITBS. Onset too swift to be iTBS though.

Very consistent pace, SPM, HR and indeed PE for the same run on the same routes.

Saturday 13th February

Longer run
Time: 1:20:03
Dist: 15.1 km
HR: 165 bpm
Cad: 179 spm
Pace: 5:18 per km

Hung over run. Want to get a longer run in and after last night's debacle planned a route. Parks, greenways, and the like were out as would have been packed so thought "Where will there no one?" The City Centre. So off I went into town and around the Grafton street area. Was very surreal.

Monday 15th February

East eight
Time: 43:47
Dist: 8.05 km
HR: 165 bpm
Cad: 176 spm
Pace: 5:26 per km


Took the day off so headed out during the day for a run, I had expected things to be quieter so ran up to Marlay park. Madness. Jam packed.

Friday 19th February

Least it was something
Time: 20:00
Dist: 3.35 km
HR: 150 bpm
Cad: 173 spm
Pace: 5:59 per km

I have felt like **** all week. Sore, achey muscles and joints, and totally exhausted. Don't think it is anything of concern however it meant I didn't do anything. I also didn't want to do anything today, but I took some of the advice offered had an espresso and just did something.

Sunday 21st February

What is this thing with wheels
Time: 1:03:00
Dist: 26.7 km
HR: 144 bpm
Cad: 81 rpm
Pwr (avg): 148 watts
Pwr (norm): 186 watts
Speed: 25.1kph

I have not ridden a bike in ages, I've not been outside on a bike in longer. So it took an eternity to find all my kit, charge things, fix things, and get out the door. Ní raibh cosa orm. And my neck (from the 2016 accident) started to hurt so I banked the hour and went home. Only strayed slightly outside my 5km.

So a coach that frequents these boards that I respect highly pinged me with some observations on my recent training and metrics. He got me thinking a fair bit and while I had not been running to a pace or HR I would review to make sure in line with expectations for easy etc. Problem being these HRs (in particular) had not been refreshed in a decade. Still working off an LTHR of 176bpm.

So I did a guided LTHR test today and low and behold my easy should be a good 10bpm lower. So run slower and easier was very solid advice and I shall do that.

Wednesday 24th February

Guided LTHR test
Time: 37:46
Dist: 6.9 km
HR: 148 bpm
MHR: 185bpm
Cad: 171 spm
Pace: 5:29 per km

Didn't hurt as much as I thought. LTHR is 167bpm not 176bpm anymore. Max HR is still >190bpm.



I am sitting down too much as my hip flexors were sore all day before this.

So a few months back one of the lads suggested a group of us do an event, a 24 hour cycling event on Mondello race track. Four people, 24 hours. The guys trained for the event and put lots of effort in training. I, for shame, did not.

Anyways the event was at the weekend. Eight 45 minute slots on the track. Half in the dark - when it was also windy and wet, have in the light and bright.

I have to say it was a well organised event, and we had a good team, and a nice garage to get set up in. Sharing with a lovely group of French/Irish people who were either doing or supporting a four man team, a four woman team, and a one man team. They had lots of cakes and their young (17) helpers also helped us - on handovers, drying our gear, and giving us cakes! A tough but fantastic weekend that brought my cornering on no end.

Just under 6 hours of riding, maybe by 5-10 minutes as a result of hand over changes, and over 182km of riding. The non steady state riding was tough. When I managed to get in a group (and there were no groups at night, seemed to be less on the track(which was not illuminated at all)) the watts varied from 40 sitting in, to sprints of 780 watts in places.

My last session on the track was the final one and I did 8 laps. Final 5 of those 8 was working with a lad from Naas tri club. Final straight coming into the finish line was about 400m, I sat in and let him drag me to about 20m from line when I went around him and apologised as I passed him - every place could count, and sprinting is fun too!

Getting no sleep over the period of the event, and riding in driving wind and rain at 0200 in the morning was, I have to say, great fun and definitely character forming.

Finished 10th overall.

No crashes for us, no mechanicals for us, no argument - just a damn good time!

When I got home and unpacked I decided to go for a run to see how it felt.

In short, horrific.

The last few years I have fallen out of my good habits and fallen into some bad ones.

My weight has ballooned to 14 stone and I have not swam in years, cycled only a few times in the last year (once was the Mondello 24hour event), and I am not running that often. I am resolute that I shall ditch the, or at least most of the, bad habits and foster some good ones in 2022.

I have entered three events for 2022.

Belfast Marathon - myself and Tango are going to do this one. 1st May. No grand ambitions other than turn up on the starting line prepared as best that I can be.

Mondello 24 hour event - the 2021 edition of this event was in the middle of winter in the pissings of rain and wind, when the hours of sunlight were at a minimum. It was great craic and the same four man team is going to do it again. Ambitions for this one are to not be the massively weakest link and not to look like a certain character from a small village in Little Britain by being absolutely poured into my lycra cycling gear

Dubling Marathon - hopefully this will happen this year and the ambitions for this event are that my finishing time starts with a 3.

Along the way I walk to get back in the pool and do at least one triathlon this year. Getting back in the pool will be easier said than done. Life changes along the way and my mornings are now busy with walking dogs, letting the other half get to work early in the mornings, and dropping the kids to school. This does make getting to a pool more problematic. Coupled with the fact that the pool that I used to swim in has been filled in, literally.

I am working from home for the foreseeable and I am not sure if that helps or hinders things. No commute is good. However, no commute is also bad. I miss the miles that I racked up on the bike but I am glad that I do not have to do it every day now, it is a 42km round trip to the office my company is now at. That would quickly get to be a bit much for me I think.

In getting back into better habits I am returning to keeping a paper journal of my training, and also an online one. That helped me stay on the straight and narrow before and I am hoping it will again too.

On the 18th June I did the Mondello 24hour event again, as part of a four man team again.

In truth I had not sat on my bike since the last iteration of this event in October 2021. We had an uber biker on the team, a great biker, a strong cyclist, and then me. Rider one made up ground for us, rider two made up a little ground, rider 3 maintained, and then I lost ground. In the end we came second. Over the course of the 24 hours I thought I was having a stroke (first hour on), I was convinced I had a heart attack (after third hour on), puked my ring for an hour (after fourth hour on).

Suffice it to say I am in terrible shape, weighing in at 14stone, my 5km pace is a fantastic 24:20, and I would drown if I went near water.

I do want to do a triathlon again and am going to target one for 2023 - before that I need to lose weight and get fit!

Friday 9th September 2022

Weight: Around fourteen and a half stone

Activity levels: mostly sedentary - no commute as working from home and will be as long as in the employ of my present company. Not swam in years, occasionally with sit my fat ass on a 2004 Cannondale CAAD9 and struggle up the hills. I'm not living southside so no real flat riding. I don't go to the gym, have gotten awfully weak (and flabby), and I run jog waddle around Bushy park once or twice a week for thirty minutes at most.

Lifestyle: Too little sleep, too little fruit and veg, too much sugar, too much refined food, too much red wine, too little water, too much stress

Goal: I want to do a sprint tri next year, and I want to do it in the wetsuit I used in 2004. So that means getting leaner although not 2009 lean.

Why it is different this time: I have finally come to terms that my accident in 2009 was the beginning of the end of the phase of my life when sport was everything and I would be in reasonable shape. I further accept that by the time of my accidents in 2016 and 2018 I should have gotten a bit of help and let things go. Instead it took four years to organically come to a place that I can accept that I just want to be active and have a few laughs.

Saturday 10th September 2022 & Sunday 11th September 2022

The path to hell is paved with good intentions. That being said spent lots of time with the kids, lots of hurling and football. Tiring weekend none the less

Friday 16th September 2022

Evening run between meetings waddle

Time: 20:05

Distance: 3.32km

Average pace: 6:03 /km

Average HR: 138bpm

Average cad: 169spm

Average pwr: 340w

Have meetings until 2100 tonight so needed out about 1730 for as long as I could between calls. Had to do something or I would go nuts.

My chest wasn't great but sure what can you do