From Fat Couch Potato to who knows where

manwithaplan wrote: »

You were pushing things on around the back of the Airport, fair play to you. I didn't know who you were and I was thinking "that guy is strong".

I think you could look at your bike set up. I would say you're too upright. You need to get that saddle up and/or bars down.

Hi Manwiththeplan,

A bike fit has been on my agenda for a while now. I was hoping to use bikefitting.ie, as I had heard good things about them on this forum, but the lady is having a baby and out of action for a good while.

My bike fit is definitely somewhere between bad and very bad at the moment. On long rides above 100km I get quite bad knee pain which lasts a day or two afterwards, probably due to bad cleat position. I am also getting some back pain too.

Anyone recommend somewhere good to get a fit done?

Tnx,

Inq

Week 17/18 2011

Sat 9th July - Swords CC 8.30am spin - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/97809131

Good run, some fun at the back of the airport as I tried to stay on manwithaplans wheel as he set off to chase down some lads who had set off up the road. Nice weather for it too!

Set out for my 2 week holiday with the family in Spain that afternoon.

I had arranged to hire a bike out there so I could do some cycling in the mornings on occassion.

A chap called David sorted me out with a road bike for the 2 weeks, spare tubes, pump etc etc. He was super helpful and whilst it wasn't a state of the art bike, it was more than adequate for a few holiday training spins...even if it did weigh in at over 15kg's!

Anyways a quick plug for David - http://www.costablancabikehire.com/

Can't recommend him highly enough if you are ever in the region around Torrevieja.

He sorted me out with this old, very yellow, weighty but dependable Trek.



Mon 11th July - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/98421572

50km up through a national park with a few short 2km climbs at 5-8%, popular route and managed to get into a few hill climb races along the 10km road to Rebate. For the record I creamed 3 guys and got anihilated by another over the 2 weeks!

Worth noting the temps of the rides too, the heat definitely adds to the effort. Hotter inland in the hills, and cooler by the breezy coast generally.

Avg Temperature: 32.2 °C
Min Temperature: 26.0 °C
Max Temperature: 35.0 °C



Weds 13th July - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101614741

Same route.

Avg Temperature: 32.7 °C
Min Temperature: 27.0 °C
Max Temperature: 36.0 °C



Thurs 14th July - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101614736

Avg Temperature: 31.1 °C
Min Temperature: 27.0 °C
Max Temperature: 34.0 °C



Fri 15th July - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101614727

40km out and back along the hilly road rather than round in a loop.

Avg Temperature: 32.6 °C
Min Temperature: 28.0 °C
Max Temperature: 34.0 °C



Sun 17th July - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101614714

My brother came over with his girlfriend for a few days so he nabbed a lovely old Colnago off Dave to go out for a spin with me. We took in the reservoir after the rolling/hilly road to Rebate.









Pretty hot in places:

Avg Temperature: 33.8 °C
Min Temperature: 28.0 °C
Max Temperature: 41.0 °C

Tues 12th July - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101614746

6km run, very hard in the heat, I was very very warm on the uphill return.
Avg Temperature: 30.1 °C
Min Temperature: 26.0 °C
Max Temperature: 33.0 °C

Wed 20th July - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101614707

The big one, went out to climb my first Cat 1 climb that has featured on both the Vuelta and the Tour of Murcia over the years. It starts 200-300m above sea level climbing to 1583 at the peak where there lies a military base.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/322702

Ride with gps gives the gradient data, and shows the main portion of the climb from the turn into the Sierra Espuna national park is 12.7km odd at an average of 8.1% peaking at over 15%.

It takes in a number of hairpins with some long ramps that really hurt hard.

The scenary is amazing, but the climb was tough in that heat, I span away in the granny ring on my limit for almost 90minutes climbing 1280m of vert in about 25km of road, with the last 12.7km mentioned above.

It was defintely the hardest thing I have yet done on a bike. I was breathing so hard and the climb had so little respite that it was hard to even drink from my bottle.

Avg Temperature: 30.0 °C
Min Temperature: 23.0 °C
Max Temperature: 38.0 °C

The temps ranged from still extreme heat on the lower levels to a much more refreshing 23C as the altitude kicked in and the breeze got up on the higher slopes.

I could see all the writing on the road from previous stages up this climb and it was easy to imagine the craziness with the roads lined with screaming fans on either side.

This is a decent climb by anyones standards and I was proud to ride from top to bottom without stopping, on my 15kg old skool bike. The missus and the kids followed me up in the car screaming encouragement, as the location is fairly isolated and I didn't fancy doing it on my jack jones in a 30C+ national park with no mobile signal!











Annual Total: 3,000km
Holiday Fortnight Total: 350km

Week 19/20 2011

For the record I am 35 next month and have gone from 105Kg to 78Kg which is about 4.25 stone lost in a little over a year.

Tue 26th July

10km run 50:39 new PB

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/101933546

Weds 27th July

4km run, was sposed to be 5km, felt terrible called it a day passing my house after 4km.

Sat 30th July

49km

Spin out to Howth for a bikefit at Bikehub. Paul did the fit, took his time and make a number of changes. Very happy with the fit and the service, would recommend. On the long spin yesterday things felt better though I am still plagued by pain in the bottom left of my lower back once I hit 70km+. I don't think its to do with the bike fit, may be a leftover from playing front row rugby for years.

I did Swords -> Howth Village -> round to Sutton and over the hill from Sutton Side -> back up from the Village side and then down to the Village and back to Swords.

Its disjointed into 3 garmin segments

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102747661
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102747660
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102747660

Mon 1st Aug

Just did some hill repeats of the hill near home. Its not a big hill, but its good enough to do a job.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103434327

Tues 2nd August

50km 26.2 avg

Went from the Rathbeal Road up thru Ballyboughal and Naul straight as far as the motorway crossing and then back again. Lots of up and down, definitely will repeat this alot to get better climbing legs, it seems the best value for hills round these parts.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/103691821

Weds 3rd August

10km run, didn't time it but felt good.

Sat 6th August

http://app.strava.com/rides/1148256

When clean roadies get dirty!

Ballinastoe Mountainbiking, full loop. Took about 2 hours though I spent alot of time waiting at the top of the hills for the girls who had kindly taken me out for the spin.

Sun 7th August

Orwell Randonnée

http://app.strava.com/rides/1148257

5hrs 14mins rolling apparently, 137km, 26.2kph avg

This event was excellently run, can't recommend it enough to people for next year. The prospect of Shay Elliot after the food stop did curtail my appetite for cake and sambos though!

Jaffa Cakes, Cookies, Tea and Coffee before the off.

Powerdrinks at the top of Sally Gap

Carrot Cake, Sambos, Jelley Babies, Coke, Orange Quarters and Soup at the lunch stop.

Burger and chips at the finish!

The MTB excursion on Sat had taken a bit out of my legs and I didn't climb well after the lunch stop, I tried taking Jens advice, but my legs just wouldn't STFU!

Boardsies discuss team tactics for getting to the cake first

Some of team boardsie at the start

Rolling out at 9.10am

The infamous "Wall"
Me suffering on the aforementioned "Wall"
Sally Gap
Onto Shay Elliot

Cool pic from Shay Elliot

Coming Soon

20th August - Frank Duffy 10mile run in the Park
28th August - SKT 160 Comeragh Challenge

Bi Weekly Total: 260km
Annual Total: 3260

MTB Kms should count more

Just back from the Frank Duffy 10 mile in the Phoenix Park, about 6000 people taking part, I did us roadies proud.

I ran it in 1hr15mins, which I am well chuffed with, I also set a 10km PB of 46minutes dead en route. I ran a very very even pace of about 7mins30secs per mile, and think I managed to extract a performance close to the best I could have done.

Roll on the Leinster Loop tomorrow!

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

Hi Inquitus, great log.

I have ordered a Felt F85 which will hopefully be arriving this week. I noticed that while it doesn't have a carbon frame like yours that most of the components are the same or similar (probably at least slightly better in your case).

So I am wondering how you have found them? Specifically the shifters and brakes. As the microshift shifters have had some bad reviews around the internet and the brakes I think are own brand felt brakes.

I didn't like the Microshift shifters myself, though the 2011 ones have had much better reviews than previous iterations, some people saying they are as good as 105. I sold the Microshift ones for 60 euro on ebay and bought some second hand Ultegra's off of cycling adverts for 80 euro.

The Felt brakes are fine, no issues at all with them.

AIR-AUSSIE wrote: »

What didn't like about them?

I didn't like the way they shift, the feel of them, they just weren't for me. I like the Shimano shift. Why don't you ask for a test ride on a bike with those Microshift shifters and see what you think yourself. Alot of it is down to personal preferences I guess.

Week 21/22 of 2011

papac wrote: »

Well done.

Drop bar carbon fibre and the 160k at next years SK??

2010's aim was the SKT 90
2011's aim was as described by papac above duly completed on Sunday

http://app.strava.com/rides/1431313#

RAAM aka Peter Doyle is a prolific fecker, you go as far as Waterford and he's got the Strava KOM on Seskin......how do we get away from this fella, he's like NCD's answer to Ryan Sherlock

Sun 21st August

The Leinster Loop with Stephen Roche

Had a great time on the run today, got my excuses in early, making sure to tell all and sundry my legs were bolloxed after the Frank Duffy 10 mile run in the park yesterday....to be fair they were.

Event was well run, marshalling was great too. Boardsie company was also top notch and really enjoyed the last 45km with Team Boardsie from the food stop to the finish.

Jimm prompted me to put the hammer down with him once we were in the last 10k, I told him I had left my hammer at home, but he didn't seem to get the hint. Then Jimm attacked on, or near, the last hill on the main road, Mahoo and I managed to haul him in, and I followed Mahoo's counter-attack and then it was just us 2 boardsies and another couple of lads up the road, Mahoo dropped me on a short drag, but I did the auld slingshot pass technique on the flat to pull out a gap, he closed it down, Q the comedy sprint to the finish that I won by inches, only cos he made a bags of the last bend and was in the wrong gear....but hey I'll take it.

The last 45 with the lads was great craic, and the comedy finish was a good bit of fun too.

My Garmin was on the blink, but I rode with Jimm most of the day so thanks to him for sending me his tcx.

http://app.strava.com/rides/1431379

Sun 28th August

The Sean Kelly 160km Comeragh Challenge.

An early start, alarm set for 5am, on the road by 5.15am and arrived in Dungarvon about 7.45am.

Time to get my act together with registration etc, grab a coffee and wolf down some Porridge.

Met Jimm at the registration and again at the start. Bumped into The Tax Man round that time too, and also DJ Groovy and a couple of other boardsies who's names I forget.

Jimm and I started near the back of the group, and spent most of the time from the start to the bottom of Seskin working hard to bridge to the next group up the road in the hope of finding one that was working well together. This didn't turn out to be the case and we had spent a fair bit of effort trying.

That said I felt fresh for Seskin and breezed up it in a decent enough time of 7 and a half minutes odd. I like these short punchy climbs much more than the long drag of Powers the Pot to come later in the day.

I dropped Jimm on the climb, but he powered back up to me on the flat, we got together with about 10 other riders and chased hard to catch a group of 40 odd up the road, sat on with them for 5 minutes and then it was the 1st food stop...Grrrrrr another waste of effort!

Stopped for 15 minutes odd and wolfed down some grub and a cuppa. Met needmoregears and had a quick chat. Well organised food stop, and a bit of cyclocross on the way out!

Again Jimm and I worked quite hard bridging across to groups ahead before we got on the back of a group riding towards the bottom of Powers the Pot. The group contained Daithi BC and we had a chat approaching the base of the climb. I don't like the draggy climbs like this and about half way up Daithi and Jimm dropped me, I have to just ride at my own pace on these, I get into a nice tempo and just spin up them, but if I push it too hard trying to keep up with faster folks, I just blow up.

The lads finished the climb about 100m up the road from me, and I tried hard to chase Jimm down, but he wasn't hanging about on the descent and the gap stayed about the same.

The next food stop came shortly after and we nabbed a cuppa and fodder, probably stopped for 10-15mins before moving on.

Again Jimm and I worked hard bridging gaps until we got on the back of a nice group from Marble City Wheelers. Met Sister Assumpta here and had a nice chat as we rode towards Mahon Falls, she had climbed it once and didn't paint a pretty picture! Jimm had his glasses fall out of his pocket and had to drop back to pick them up so started the climb a few minutes behind the rest of us.

The group blew apart on the base of the climb and I settled into my own pace for the climb. I enjoyed this climb more than the other 2 on the day, but it was definitely the toughest, there is only the briefest of respites for a couple of hundred meters when it flattens out at one point, that aside it's relentless with various ramps that get up and even the less steep bits keep the legs burning. There was a nasty headwind all the way up, but thankfully that turned into a tailwind for the final steep ramp to the top, which made that last bit alot easier than it might have been.

A dodgy descent followed which involved pretty much going as slow as possible on the gravelly surface, but plenty of marshalls to make sure you knew to take it handy.

There was a drink stop shortly after the descent and I waited 5mins for Jimm to catch up after recovering his glasses and we set off again. We were on our own pretty much the whole way to the base of the next climb, the Mama Road. Jimm dropped me early, as I decided to climb at my own steady tempo and not get caught up in what others were doing. I hauled Jimm in at my steady 14.2kph and eventually passed him and set off into the distance.

Crested the top of the climb and an auld lad who had wheel sucked me to the top said "thanks, that was a lovely pace", he must have been 20-30 years my senior....puts alot of things into perspective. I have come a long way so far with my training, but if I put in the work I have a long way I could still go!

With the Mama Road done, there was some rolling country and then as I reached the main road Dungarvon CC were massing for a group ride to the finish, the more the merrier they said, and a nice tow home the last 15km at a 40kph avg and topping 50-60kph in places. A big thanks to them, and that final blast down into the town is a great way to finish off a great event.

Met loads of boardsies, lots riding incognito, sadly I can't remember all their names.

Seskin with a smile!



Mahon Falls with a Grimace!



Annual Total: 3,530
BiWeekly Total: 280km

Loose aims for the rest of the year.

1) Get as close to 5,000km as I can.
2) Dying Sow 300km Audax or Swords CC Sportif
3) Get out on the MTB to keep the fitness levels up when the clocks go back
4) Fit in any of the out of season Sportifs I can to keep fitness levels up.

Now I have completed my aim for 2010 of doing the SKT160, I need to decide what goal to set myself for next year. I really got the bit between the teeth in 2010 and have made some great leaps in both bodyweight and fitness, weighing in at 77kg these days.

I think perhaps the logical progression for me now would be to target the Swords Club league for 2012, put in some work during the Winter and be able to hang with the slowest group when it kicks off next year.

And here's me leading the Peleton up Seskin.....or so it might seem.....