ultra running.

I have never done one. I dont really know anyone that has. There are only a hand full of them in this country and really only 2 of them on trails. I have read about ones in the usa, leadville , rockyracoon, badwater. I have read and know the route of the connemara 100 (miles!) race, it would be a very long cycle never mind run.

The 3 full marathons that i did, Dublin (1998, 2006) and Conemara (2002) were all a long ways from success stories, yes i finished them, but both Dublin's were horror stories, starting way to fast, sick and injured and struggling to finish the last few miles, the first i cant really remember much off, finishing in well over 5 hours and the second, whilst in a much better time of 3.35, was in truth a failure, as i was in shape to run a sub 3.15, but a sore foot , injured on the last long run prior to the marathon, and very poor tactics, (i did the first half in 1.31! and the second in 2.04!!) connemara was done on no training and a 4.02 was very satisfactory but the pain in my knee for the following 4 months, was most definetly not!!

So with that kind of a history in 'only' 26.2 miles, why the hell do i want to do races that are, in some cases nearly 4 times! as long. I have no real idea, but i know that some time in 2012 i will be toeing the line at the start of an ultra.

For alex!

seen this today and thought 'this was made for alex'! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEu42L0ufBY

New bike!

So i bought a mountain bike! yeah i know i have not been riding one much, (except the 100km in the raid!) but i need one and fancy carbon ones with hangers and deraillers just bug me at this stage and i cant afford them anyway, also 'performance' mountian bike racing, i think is something i will be doing feck all off, so i went for a workhorse bike. I had a few priorities, first, steel or titanium frame, so steel cause i is broke :), no friggin hanger or derailler, i have broke 3 hangers on 3 different mountain bikes, nearly everyone i know has too, deraillers are a left over design from the early days of road bikes and for a long time i have thought that on a mountain bike they just do not make sense. The belt designs are not there yet, i think or are too expensive and i gave single speeding a full year or sweat and its great but in westcork its a bit of a pain, i mean you dont want to race everytime you go out riding and effectively you have to on the hilly terrain we have here, that or walk and sure if i wanted to do that i would take up downhilling!.

Also tubeless rims on the wheels, they loose air, yes but you get so few punctures its worth it. SO with a super limitied budget and a fairly impossible list of requests i had to wait and wait, (over 6 months!) but finally one came up. Its a genesis IO,reynolds 520 steel frame with an 8 speed internal geared alfine hub and bog standard everything else, it also came with a single speed wheel! bonus. I am sure the hub will be well heavy but its a trade off. Weight versus ever bodging gears? i think i have spent enough time dicking around with deraillers and bending back hangers with my hand, hoping it would not break off in my hand! Have not got the bike yet, it will arrive in 2 weeks, but it should be interesting when it does arrive. I think it will be like my toyota hiace, a bit dead but it will always start!

https://picasaweb.google.com/bunclodyfurlongs/Genesis_IO_with_8spd_Alfine

'How far will it be Dun'?

'Lets do one of those trail runs you know up in the hills of castlesdonavan' am yeah ok, i respond, I look at thge map for 10 minutes, gotta plan, 10km, proper big lump of a hill in the middle. Pack the bum bag, map, compass, rain jacket, survival blanket, compeed, whistle, locozade energy tablets as emergency food and 2 cereal bars.
Off we head in the van, ken, alex and myself. We start up a big long road hill, then hit the really wet, slippy bog trail up the back of the once much talked about Mullaghmesha (the glory days of pirate radio, 80's and the mast that was up there) we are walking alot of it, it would be exhausting running and we are out for a trip on a sunday afternoon, more than any specific workout, alex and i have tired legs from a hard hill run the day before anyway, relax enjoy the day. We get to the top its very misty, 40 metres visibility, we are running along now for a km on a lovely spongey water bed of moss and peat. Soon the poles dissappear, we are on a featurless plateau, time for the map.

I guess where we are , take a bearing and we head off with the lads out front so i have something to line the direction arrow with, there is almost no features, we hit the small lake i was hoping for, its tough terrain, contour around, follow the river hit the bigger lake, then east and onto the trail, push on running here, it feels great, it really feels like a team adventure race, we hit a trail junction, yeah up here, lovely running, 'no, no, i'm wrong, sorry back again', fun running though so who cares, then down a super track flying for a mile, god what craic. Yeah drive on ticking off the features, great trail, hit the road , look up, 'o, i know that trail, its on the bantry.....................side!' open out the map, i was navigating fine but was going to the wrong location, i am roaring laughing on the inside, and questioning 'did i actually mean this' 'did i want to end up wandering in the dark' 'maybe' i definetly have done this to almost everyone in know for the craic of it,
subversive subconscious!

So this adds over 5 miles of road, with lots of hills, 'really, o fuck' did you do that on purpose' i say 'no' but if i am honest, i have no idea, but i can say that 'it' will definetly happen again!

We drive on, then some ball sack issues and a dodgy knee slow us to a walk, grand sure, even in shorts, in the dark, in November. The stars are out, the chat is good and i am only half hungry, would love an expresso though.

'How far will it be dun'? 'Am, an hour and a bit (een)' 'RIGHT'!

So thats it a lovely 3 and a half hour trip on a sunday afternoon, cool.


Post note, did a hard basketball session on monday night, shot the ball very well and did 20 hilly miles on the road along the beaches and coast near clonaklity on wednesday, 2.40, so thats 4 hardish days so rest needed now!

Trail run

So i did a lovely easy /steady trail run this morning with Young gun Alex along for company. He has great enthusiasm and a passion for most sports, especially road, XC and Dh Biking. Rowing i guess is his number 1 Sport and so like all rowers he needs to do some running. We did a cool 2 hr road spin last week and this week did a 80 min trail run in Clashna, and it was cool, sunny morning, wandering around wondering what trail to go up or come down, nice and interesting. We parked at Alexs house, ran for 90 seconds on the road and then trails all the way!

We went through bog, water up to our knees, briars, fireroad, grass, mud, earth, in short the works, alot of steep ascent and had to practice a range of trail running techniques, alex hit his head off a tree, bleed down his face (see pic) and vomited some cider from last night and also had a big blister on his arch at the end, he said he was really thirsty so we drank from the mountain strem we ran past, it tasted sweet.We ran the whole thing in just our shorts, and its the middle of November! You cant get a better morning than that.

A legend retire's.

http://bcove.me/bkgvy8d7

A picture paints a thousand words!

Back to basics

Well its winter proper now and despite the unseasonal balmy weather we have had in the last 5 days, its time for the the long slow stuff and some cross training, and sure you might as fire in some stretching/yoga, core stuff too while your at it :)
On sat i did 25 mins off road run in the am and 2 hour hilly roadbike pm. On sunday,4 miles road easy followed by lots of lunges, squats and some yoga. On Monday i did 8 miles road and 1 hour basketball, on tuesday i did 5 miles road,yoga on wednesday 1 hour hilly roadbike,thursday 20 mins basketball shooting and 16 mins barefoot on grass, strength excercises. The barefoot run is one of the most enjoyable runs i have done the whole year, i just felt great during and after it (and i didnt beforehand!) baefooting for me will only ever happen on a nice grass field, doing it on the roads or trails just is not suited to me, it definetly is not a fad though and i think has a clear place inany runners programme this is why i will strive to do one of these a week up to 20 mins for the next few months.

The raid part 1

24 Hour Adventure Race, Sperrin Mountains, Co.Tyrone, October 29and 30th

So last weekend I headed up north and completed a 24hour nonstop adventure race, as part of a team, it was, in many ways the culmination of a decade’s worth of trapezing up and across mountains, kayaking down rivers and biking through forest and over dale.

I headed up to Dublin on the Thursday and stayed with my fantastic hosts, Cormac and Susie, a husband and wife pairing that I had bumped into them at the start line of the Mountain Bike Single Speed World Champs, last august in Co Limerick……dancing! 

On that day, we were all in fancy dress and despite the fact that the 500 strong crowd (400 from abroad!) were in festive mood and there for fun and frolics on show all around, there was something about this couple that for me set them apart from the crowd. After the ‘race’ (I had a drop of whiskey and 2 pints before the start!) we hung out and drank a few beers (ok, a lot of beer) and a few weeks later I got an email form Cormac asking me to join him as part of a team for the upcoming 24 hour adventure race, that was previously known as the Cooley Raid. I was delighted to get the invite but I had reservations to be honest. 

In 2003, I had tried this type of race and it was a disaster. The weather was horrific and my partner was not much of a team player so I parked the idea of real Adventure racing for the bones of a decade, and rightly so as I had ‘things’ to learn. In the intervening years I have become a much better, kayaker( 2 alpine white water trips and 4 liffey descents), I have raced my road bike around the country and put in 4 seasons as a competitive Mountain biker, I also have much better stamina from a running point of view, doing multiple long mountain training runs and races. I have also got married and marriage is the ultimate test of team. Lastly and perhaps most importantly I have had 4 babies to care for with my wife in that time. 

This sleepness haze that lasted for 6 or 7 years has without doubt hardened my mind so that I can physically overcome tiredness in order to complete a given task, be it change a nappy at 4 am or follow a compass bearing across a bog in the dark with my bike on my back! So with this notion that I had toughened up, I finally committed to do the race and would be on a team of 4, 3 male, 1female (the classic Adventure race format), with; Cormac from North Mayo, Robbie from Kilkenny and Hilary from Carlow, none of whom I really knew, having only met Cormac and Robbie for an evening and never actually meeting Hilary. This might be a worry to some people but it only served to excite and intrigue me as to what might happen between all of us in the depths of the Sperrin Mountains in the middle of the night!

The website for the race is limited. This I have decided in very much on purpose. True Adventure racing in Ireland is a tiny niche underworld community that for the individual not in the know is very difficult to discover and if you do hear of it the descriptions that follow usually deter most normal people from any further exploration.

In fact, I would say that finding your way onto a team for the first time is more difficult than the 24 hours of navigation you will encounter on the rivers, lakes, forests, mountains and roads in the actual race itself. 

Remember I stumbled into this race by accident, falling down the rabbit hole as it were.

We are now at a stage in this country where almost every county has a so called adventure race, the Gaelforces, the War’s, the southcoast adventures all ‘roaring’ along from sea to summit. These races attract big numbers up to 2500 people flying along the roads on bikes, up and down local trails by foot and the compulsory few hundred metres of kayaking, before the winner reaches the finish in around 3 hours and the beginner taking up to 6 hours to complete the challenge. In short they are the slightly alternative versions of Triathlon and like that sport they have seen incredible growth in the last 5 years. This is fantastic in my view. It makes for a more diverse and interesting sporting community in Ireland and a healthier one as well.

These races are however not really adventure. They should be called multisport or alternative triathlon or something similar. There is no real requirement to be self sufficient. There is no Navigation neccesary, you follow arrows or markings and or Marshalls like in a triathlon, they are on in daylight, they stick to roads and defined trails in the hills, they are short enough to insure that you will usually reach the finish line before hypothermia, starvation or dehydration will over take you and if it does, rescue is never far away. Also and possibly most importantly you do these races on your own, answering to know one but yourself, adjusting your pace, food and drink intake according to your own feelings. Pushing hard to the finish or pulling the plug and going home early, its your call.

True Adventure racing requires good map and compass skills, self sufficiency for long periods, a broad range of technical skills, an ability to stay awake through the night, a strict nutrition plan to ensure energy levels for over 20 hours, clear and effective planning, tactical awareness, sometimes advanced improvisation and  4 people to work together, harmoniously so the team make it to the finish, if one person cant go on, the race is over.

Basically these long races are a completely different Beast altogether.