From Fat Couch Potato to who knows where

The week so far!

Monday:
17km Swords > Malahide > Swords - gentle cycle with the missus
55km Swords > Lusk > Rush > Skerries > Balbriggan > Naul Hill > Ballyboughal > Swords - Proper cycle

Tues:
24km Swords > Malahide > Portmarnock > Swords - gentle cycle with the missus
40km Swords > Skerries > Swords - Proper cycle

Weds:
10km Commute

Thurs:
10km Commute
24km Swords > Ashbourne > Swords

Annual total: 828km
Weekly Total (1st 4 days): 180km

Highlight tonight, averaged 30.7kph over 24km from Swords to Ashbourne along the Rathbeal Road, round the roundabout, and back again. Could have kept it going for another 6k I am pretty sure to average 30kph for an hour, which will be an aim in the next week or so.

That aside, I am clocking up the miles in the great weather! Looking towards doing some 100km+ events in the next month or so too.

Pride comes before a fall being dropped!

I went to meet up with the Swords CC 8.30 Spin this morning. Lovely friendly and helpful bunch of people. One of them uttered some sage words of advice, "Just hang out at the back, you don't have to do a turn at the front!" Now if only I had heeded those words!

A bit of hubris, alot of noobness, and a bit of wanting to see how'd I'd get on doing a turn meant I made my way up to the front via a long series of up and overs only to be in the box seat just as we turned under the railway bridge to go up the hill out of Skerries facing into a howling breeze.

HR hit the red line as a foolishly soldiered on for a couple of km, no doubt slowing the group while I was at it, I shredded my legs before I gasped "How do I get off the front!". I moved over and then dropped back to the back, only managing to not be dropped via some encouragement from my fellow cyclists.

I hid at the back while my valiant team of domestiques did their best to keep me attached, but my legs were shredded and at any hint of an incline the lactic acid kicked in and so did the burning pain.

I managed to hold on as far as the final slope into Naul Village before being dropped for good. If one is going to be dropped, right outside the Naul Cafe is a pretty decent spot imo.

I'll join up with them again next week , and hide at the back for the duration. I think then I should hopefully be able to get round the 70km circuit.

It was a fun ride while it lasted and it's good to try and adapt to group riding with such a forgiving and helpful bunch. Alot of lessons learnt today which can only be a good thing!

In the end I did just shy of 60km door to door, and about 40km of the 70km circuit Swords CC were completing.

Weight: 88kg now

Fri:
5km Commute
33km Swords > Easy Howth > Portmarnock

Sat

58km Swords > Lusk > Skerries > Balbriggan > Naul > Ballyboughal > Swords

Annual total: 924km
Weekly Total: 276km

A relatively quiet week this week, the Winter vomiting bug swept through the household over the weekend, tagging myself and the 3 kids, though sparing my wife.

Mon
83km Swords > Lusk > Rush > Skerries > Balbriggan > Droheda > Duleek > Ashbourne > Swords

Went out for a long bank holiday cycle in the fine weather, my "King of the Hill" tan is looking great! Averaged 26kph non stop which isn't bad at all, again a howling wind....I am getting sick of the wind now, it feels like it hasn't stopped blowing for the last 2 months.

Weds:
30km Swords > Ballyboughal > Nags Head > Swords

Averaged 28kph round this 30km which takes in the Nags Head allbeit from the more gradual side. Definitely speeding up on the NCD hills at any rate!

Fri:
30km Swords > Ballyboughal > Nags Head > Swords

Same route, 25.5kph went up quick enough, got soaked on the descent, no appropriate clothing with me and a howling gale into my face on the way home........not super pleasant weather atm.

Sat:
53km Swords > Lusk > Rush > Skerries > Balbriggan > Naul > Ballyboughal > Swords

Was up all night with the kids so missed the Swords CC spin and went out later on my own. Averaged 27kph which is pretty good, plenty of wind out there and for good measure another soaking as I climbed Naul Hill just in time to be frozen on the descent into Ballyboughal!

Annual total: 1,306.2km
Weekly Total: 196km

Wanted list
Garmin 500 + HR + cadence (coming soon)
Some decent rain gear.

Edit: Have started back at Tag Rugby after a 5-6 year hiatus of being too unfit, training Tues and playing Thurs, probably a good thing to mix up the types of exercise.

Tues:

Tag Rugby training, 10km Commute

Thurs:

Tag Rugby, 10km Commute

Sat:

120km Ras Legends Royal Meath Challenge

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86983411

Kept pace for the first 72km very handy, even did a couple of turns on the front into the howling wind. After the food stop at 72km they set off at a savage pace and I was in a group of about 10 clipping along at well over 40kph.

My brother was with me and he got dropped, wasn't able for that sort of pace. He had a tumour removed along with a portion of his left lung in mid January, so merely completing the 120km course is a massive achievement in itself. He is new to cycling, and his long spins top out at about 70km, and his body seemed to have had enough not long after that marker.

We took our time for 30-40km and as we neared the finish, I set off for a solo burst of about 10km at the end averaging 30+kph.

I was still full of riding at the end, kept up and contributed to the pace in a couple of different groups throughout the day, and without doubt it was my best day on a bike to date.

This ride was flat as the proverbial pancake, next weeks Viking Longship has some proper hills to whet the appetite and I am looking forward to a very different challenge.

Annual total: 1,646.2km
Weekly Total: 140km

100km Tour of Louth, 3hrs9mins, Gold Medal. Thrilled with my ride today even though the legs didn't feel good, more to follow later!

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/270146

RT66 wrote: »

Well done on the TOL. What sort of pace/distance does that 8.30am group go at? I'm thinking of gatecrashing next Saturday.

Never logged it on my phone, and not been out with them since I got my garmin. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say about 30kph or so up hill and down dale, and it runs for about 70km.

This is the route from the website, its mainly rolling, with the main drags out of Skerries, and up to Naul village.

The Wicklow 200 2011, an exercise in suffering

Woke 10mins before the alarm at 5.20am and started getting myself sorted, breakfast of Porridge and a nice cuppa. Hit the road at 5.50am and made for Greystones, weather was looking decent enough, though as I passed 3 rock I could see the cloud coming in over the Wicklow mountains, any hope the forecasters had got it wrong was fading.

I arrived at Shoreside about 6.25am, got the bike off the car and started to get myself together. Mounted the bike and headed down to clock in. Clocked in at 6.40am or so, realised I had left my shades on the roof of the car, so a quick spin back to pick them up and I set off up the N11 with the rest. Forgot to start the gps for a couple of mins but nothing major.

I had come up with a rudimentary plan for keeping my effort consistent with the 200km nature of the challenge, and had decided to try and stay in HR Zone 3 as much as possible on the flat so as not to burn myself out, as it turned out Zone 4 was required just to stay warm at times!

Headed up the N11 and towards the first climb of the day at Sally Gap, no groups forming, but I did have a nice chat with a chap who was pondering whether to do the 100 or 200, he chose wisely and we parted company at the split.

The Climb up to Sally Gap was easy enough, passed plenty of folks on the long and not so steep portion before the left turn, and more on the final section to the top. At this point the rain was very light and although the wind was getting up conditions weren't too bad and spirits were good. Descended quite fast hitting @70kph on the way down, didn't clock the bridge at all and nearly ended up requiring the ambulance. As I spotted the bridge I slammed on the brakes and the back wheel got out of shape on me, my brain was looking for the best place to bail out, but I got it back together and made it round the corner, thankfully no cars coming the other way so I had enough road to play with. Given the day that was in it they should have had a marshall waving people to slow down up the hill from the bridge, as they did at the earlier hairpin before the Sally Gap climb.

From Sally Gap to Donard it was mainly rolling stuff and some extended drags. I was going ok, but the rain and wind had really started to get up and it was gusting hard and mostly into your face or savage crosswind. I was motoring along happily enough on my own and passed Gog somewhere alongside the reservoir, we had a quick chat for a few minutes and then parted company. Shortly after I bumped into a Veteran cyclist and we had a chat for a few minutes, he was a yachtsman and a keen meteorologist, when I made a passing comment about what a fine day it was, he cheerfully informed me that the wind and rain hadn't even started properly yet, and it would be a howling gale and a deluge into our faces when we reached SM and SE, and he was right!

It was pretty uneventful until Donard and a sitdown with a quick cuppa, chicken and stuffing sandwich and rice krispie bar had me back on the road in 10-15mins. The legs felt refreshed and I made good time for a while, but that quickly faded and it was about this time I started to notice that the constant rolling nature of the ride was taking its toll on my legs and whilst the mind and heart were willing, the legs were starting to flag a little.

I had read about on boards, and seen on ridewithgps, the small climb before SM that the WW200 noobs often mistook for SM itself, but I guess I was clutching at straws when I asked a fella as we hit the bottom of SM, "Is this Shay Elliot?", he helpfully replied "No its SM and it gets steeper yet!"

I ground away in the Granny Gear and managed to keep things moving at an average of about 8kph. I had to stop to have a lash about half way up, which was an interesting experience in that wind. Got safely over SM, grabbed some Powerbar sweeties at the energy station, and knew SE was going to greet me as soon as I was done with the descent.

The misery had well and truly sunk in now, it was blowing a gale and raining sideways, I was soaked through and descending was making me very cold and was potentially dangerous. My left hand was now numb, and on the descent I couldn't feel my left brake lever, I also had an intense ice cream headache as the rain pouring down my forehead was being chilled by the howling wind and airflow from my rapid descent.

As soon as the descent was done it was no time until SE kicked off, the 3km KOH sign at the bottom gave me some heart, at least it was short eh? I didn't find SE as hard as SM I can spin away as long as a climb doesn't kick up too steep, and SE seemed to stay in my green zone for the most part. I was still suffering away mind, but SM had been an exercise in pain. The horns and cheering from the invisible mist shrouded peak inspired me to greater efforts as I knew they were not too far off and must signify the summit. The pink 410's stencilled on the road also lifted my heart and as I summited SE I felt a burst of exhilaration, the cheers and shouts, and knowing that there may be 70km to go, and it was going to be damn hard, but the back of the WW200 was broken and I was going to get there.

After SE it seemed like a long coast downhill to Rathdrum, some more rice krispie bars, a couple of cups of tea, and another tasty chicken and stuffing sandwich....the brown bread one is better than the white btw......

Thereafter it was all downhill into Avoca, and then there was alot of unexpected uphill from then on, by this stage my legs were shredded and any sort of incline involved resorting to the granny gear and spinning away. To be fair there was alot of unexpected climbing between Avoca and Kilmacurra and some of it kicked up quite steep for short sections, I remember one left turn that kicked into a few 100m at 10% plus and was beginning to think the Marquis de Sade had been involved in the route plotting tasked with finding every dig between Rathdrum and Greystones!

Once we crossed the N11, myself and an American I had been chatting to kicked for home, and managed to set a better pace for the last 15-20km, spurred on by the thought of a hot drink and some dry clothes.

The food at the end was the most underwhelming aspect of the whole thing, having done a variety of events this last month, this was by far the mankiest fare offered to weary bodies.

My GPS, Cadence and Speed all crapped out like others have mentioned so I had to turn on corrections to fix the bogus SM and SE climb data the GPS had flattened out.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/279828

Official time: 9hrs8mins
GPS rolling time: 8hrs26mins
AVG rolling speed : 22.4kph

I am pretty chuffed to have knocked out what I would consider a decent enough time for the WW200, I have come a long way since I started last August and then again in March. In the last 4 weekends I have done the Ras Legends Royal Meath Challenge 120km, the 100km Viking ride in Waterford, a Gold medal in the Tour of Louth 100km and now the WW200.

I may give the Maracycle a whirl in a couple of weeks, and then keep things ticking over until the years main target, the SKT 160km Comeragh Challenge in late August.

Some pics of yours truly from the WW200 website:

1) Clocking off! Definitely a slightly broken insanity about my eyes there!



2) A free massage you say? Where do I sign up....



A couple of gentle recover spins on Tues and Weds.

Might try and hook up with the Swords 8.30am spin on Sat morning, see if I have come on enough to make it all the way round!

Annual total: 2,160km

Week 14 of 2011

Went for a spin last night, Swords, Ballyboughal, Nags Head, round the roundabout, Nagshead, Ballyboughal, Swords.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94158769

30.1kph average for the 33.5km round trip including up Nags Head from both sides.

As I came back over the Nags Head and neared the left turn for Ballyboughal, a fellow cyclist sped across in from of me on the main road coming from Naul. I made my left turn and was about 150m back from him. He was setting a decent pace, so I decided to try and reel him in between there and the left turn for Swords at the Rathbeal Road, a distance of about just under 10km.

I find having a target like this makes it significantly easier to ride hard on a training run then if left to my own devices. He kept eeking out more distance on the flat, but I tended to reel him in more on the slight inclines, though as its predominantly downhill til Roganstown the gap was only down to about 100m as we went over the bridge. I reeled him in fast thereafter as the road kicks up slightly, and powered past him on the 200m steepish dig at the end up onto the Rathbeal Road, before hanging a left and powering home at 40kph plus with the wind behind me.

I had gone out pretty hard, and attacked the climb hard from both sides, usually I tend to lose focus and ease off subconsciously on the way home, so having a target to aim at helped alot.

Anyways 33.5km over Nags Head twice and keeping a >30kph average is a decent spin and shaved 6 minutes off my last run over this route. Very happy with that.

Will try out a 5km jog tonight to see how that goes, and then rest up ahead of the Maracycle on Saturday. If the legs aren't shredded I might try and join the Swords CC Tour on Sunday, unfortunately I only realised it was on after regging for the Maracycle, I would definitely have opted for it instead otherwise.

Week 14 of 2011 - Part 2

Maracycle, Dublin to Belfast 25th June 2011

Did the Maracycle on Saturday. Set off from the house about 7am, in heavy enough rain and wet roads, was fairly wet by the time I made it the 10km to DCU, though spirits were lifted by the strong headwind on the way to DCU in the knowledge that would be behind us all the way.

A first group of @ 200 went off about 7.30am, I was in the 2nd similar sized group which went off 10minutes later.

Got into a nice group of 4 early on where we were all doing 2min turns on the front, it was working well until one of the lads punctured. Continued passing people at a fair old rate and then tagged onto the back of a group of 4 lads from the north.

One of the lads was a machine and did alot of time on the front including on stretch downhill at a savage pace somewhere round dundalk. The group bulked up along the way and at one point we had 14-16 lads, between punctures and people being dropped this had thinned to about 5 or 6 by the time we made the midpoint rest and timecheck point.

To our surprise we were first there and had the place to ourselves. We loaded up on Jaffa Cakes, Ham Sandwiches and a couple of cups of tea.

We set off after the stop and the group quickly thinned, down through punctures and people being dropped until there were just 4 of us left, me and the three lads from Belfast. The machine had decided, once we saw we were the first to the checkpoint, that he was going to win the race that wasn't a race He dropped his 2 buddies with only me on his wheel, and we shared the work along the towpath before he eventually dropped me on the climb up into Banbridge.

A helpful soul who was out on a short spin from one of the local northern cycling clubs kindly towed me up the 4/5km climb probably much to the chagrin of my adversary up ahead.

Spent the rest of the ride into Belfast on my own with a savage tailwind that made everything easy. The locals had removed signage at a couple of key points and I had to cycle round Banbridge asking people and trying to figure out which way was Moira, and you might notice I didn't take the direct route to Q.U. in belfast again missing signage sent me on a bit of a detour! Rolled in behind my buddy from earlier to clock what I feel is a highly creditable 05:52:48 for an avg speed of 31.4kph and a stop of only 15-20mins at the checkpoint.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94757617

Got the 16:10 train back to Connolly, having to cycle the 20km back to Swords was a bit unwelcome at that point!

Total for the day 185+10+20=215km

Swords CC Tour 100km 26th June

Was unsure as to whether I would be able, or it was wise to do this after yesterdays exertions. Kids had us up ay 8.20am, and I had a look out the window to see good weather with great potential for the day.

Got my stuff together, and set off on the short cycle to Fingallians GAA club to sign on. Paid my money, got a goodie bag with some breakfast in it, after the WW200 I have a soft spot for those Gold Rice Cripsie squares

We rolled out about 9.10am and the pace was steady enough through some lovely scenary as we took in some roads round meath.

Rolled into the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Center in glorious sunshine having done the 58km in just over 2 hours at an avg of 28 odd. It was a great spot for the food, and we sat around in glorious sunshine with lovely surroundings eating our sandwiches and drinking our tea.
Rolled out about 30mins later, again with a steady pace which held until the 150km/100km split after Julianstown. I had been feeling good engine wise and my HR had been fairly low all day, but my back was giving me **** from yesterdays efforts and my left knee and thigh were pretty hurty. I had long since decided to take the 100km option and peeled off with another 20-30 likeminded souls. There was a pretty vicious headwind on the way back down the N1 and the group thinned out to about 10 or so near the end. I did a bit of work for the last 20km after Balbriggan as we got the up and overs going, the group was all lined out by then. Pace was fairly savage for the last bit and my legs weren't enjoying it. We rolled back into Fingallians soon after and that was it for the day, said goodbyes and cycled on back up to the house.

Was a very well organised and run event, nice atmosphere, great weather and a brilliant food stop. I will join Swords CC at some stage, but the lads are stuck in the 80's and only accept cheques! and I don't have a chequebook

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/94977057

Weekly Total: 350km (315km Sat and Sun)
Annual Total: 2,580km