Run lola run!

So with the mighty strain of 'that' cycle race subsiding, i said i would get back out running, i had been craving it, as it had been exactly 3 months since i had ran even one step. The first few runs were on the road only 4 to 6 mile runs and the system was in shock. One morning my legs woke me up and i had to go down stairs and take 2 neurophen! Anyway i finally felt up to some hill running and was delighted to be out on my local trails in Clashnacrona Woods, doing my favourite, hidden link run a couple times.
After 10 runs in total, i said to my buddy Simon , lets race. So we hit the courtmacsherry 10km and it was flat and fast, i felt good and pushed it to the line, the clock read, 38.38, very happy with that. Loads of sandwiches and táe after. Simon ran a smart race and went nearly a minute inside his target, happy out.
In the days that followed i was a bit sore and very tired for some reason , so i rested up and did nothing for 4 days, something i rarely do, it was needed though.
Then i seen a sign for a 5 km race and thought, 'there is a bit of torture for me'. I had chatted to to an old school friend at the courtmac race and we travelled together to the EMC 5km in Ovens, near the city, this was a BHAA event and we got a great evening's entertainment for 8 euro.
In short i started way to fast and kinda died a death the second half of the race. I pride myself on running smart and passing runners near the end of races, so when i was passed by loads of runners in the last 2 k of this race you can imagine how i felt. Pissed.
My legs felt like lead and if i was doing mile intervals or something on my own training i would have done 1 and gone home, however in a race setting stopping is just not an option! I could not even consider increasing ht effort for the last 400 metres as i had already written off this race as a disaster, however with 100 to go i saw the clock and was very surprised, i pushed it (kinda, i was close to pucking) and came in at 18.38! How i could run that , feeling like shit for most of the race and with 2 dirty drags on the course, i have no idea. I suppose it suggests if i was smart and not sore from 3 hours of white water kayaking last night i could have run sub 18.20, but really who gives a fuck :) Mike had one of his best ever runs i think and we were happy out eating our salmon sandwich and sipping tea in the hall after. A grand evening out.

Back to training now, need to start getting the one speed session, one tempo, one long run a week thing going. I am hanging for some long trail time too. Roll on summer.

The Rás

Overall, very memorable experience, the first few days were mental, crashes like you would not believe and the speed, think a bunch of honda 50's and thats no exxageration, the day to westport i felt amazing but everyday was ridden with serious consideration of the next, i was very conservative, i wanted to finish more than anything else.

The heat in Donegal was kinda hard to understand for Ireland, tar running down the hills and o the hills, in hindsight it knocked the shit out of me, i basically fried, and even though i was o so careful with hydration, salts, electrolytes etc i faded on the last 2 days, for the last 3 days my diaphragm was very sore from the excessive and repeated  deep breathing, i have never had that before.

Mentally maybe more than  anything else i was shattered, the ever present thought of  'is today the day i slam into the ground'? i do not know how the pro,s do it , week in week out, it really would not be the life for me.

I did however hang on, with everything i had and maybe something i did not know i had. I cried on Pinch mountain in Donegal, i was alone, it was a great release, i recommend crying to anyone when it neccessary, it purifies the soul.

I cried on the last lap, on the last day into Skerries, when as a surprise my wife cheered from the side of the road, she did not tell me she was coming up. I will not be doing the Rás again, it takes to much of everything, money, time, family, me, what it has done is open my eyes to what i am capable of and there now is a desire to see how much more i could push myself, that will be the enduring legacy of the Rás for me and of course the title 'man of the Rás' will be with me now forever.

Sure thats the life of ordinary Rás men

Sure thats the life of ordinary Rás men

We left Donegal in a hurry, or at least it seemed to me as the riders went by in a flurry.
Up the drag, near the gutter, the demons inside begin to utter, ' your cooked, your done, your race is run'
I see fella's pedalling squares, the demons again, 'you need more gears' ?
Liam beeps by, i turn to see his only boy, with a wave of his hand, i am on the bumper
If this was a woman there is no way i could hump her!
We must have made some sight to the uninitiated, especially with me cycling like i'm conspitated!
Another black jersey beside me now, so Liam and John drive on, the immediate question, Is the will gone?
I look inside my soul for some semblance of control
I voyage into the deep, but no questions are answered, not even a peep
Thank god Gargan is here, silent and flowing, his objective so clear
Up and down, Down and up
Sip, Slurp, Sup
A rider comes up saying Mick is near, something this week i did not hear,
Its time to face an ancient Rás fear
They say there is safety in numbers and so it proves as by stage end we hear were still in,
Then the thought, tommorrow! 'o jaysus' we'll have to do it all again!
But sure thats the life of ordinary Rás men.

Written after stage 7 of the 2012 Rás by Donncha O Brien

Ras Mumhan

Ras mumhan is a 4 day international stage race held in Kerry each year, it is fast and very hilly, a real test for any racing cyclist. It is the second most important stage race in Ireland behind the Rás Tailteann. I rode it with my club, Cork County CC and another member of the team Brian Canty who writes for the sport section in the Irish Examiner did a blog each evening on his day, it is copied and pasted below in full. I think it says all that needs to be said about the experience.

Stage 1

How happy I am that today’s stage is put to bed!

It was a nerve-shredder of epic proportions and only this race has the ability to do same.

Purely because these roads we ride on have to be seen to be believed!!

Around the dinner table this evening we chatted about our own individual days, how are the legs, what happened, did you see such and such and so on..I’ll tell you about some of the more curious incidents in a minute, but the one common denominator was the roads! Treachourous doesn't come close to describing them!

Anyway, enough moaning. The opening stage can be described in one word. Faaaaast. 

55kph back the road to Killarney in parts, up that slight drag on the Cork road, into Kilcummin and back to Scartaglin. From there my GPS went blank.

I’m only happy now because it’s over because it's over and the race won't be that fast again for the weekend, I hope!

Coming into Killorglin this morning, I mightn’t have looked it or showed it, but boy was I nervous. 

I had so much adrenaline in my legs that I barely resisted the urge to just go on a suicide mission as soon as the flag was dropped and take off!

Obviously I’d have grilled myself by the time we reached Fossa but that urge to want to just lash the pedals was overwhelming!!

So thankfully, the rain held off and 180 or so of us lined up and as soon as the whistle blew and the tannoy announced ‘racing is underway’ it was flat to the board.

To borrow a phrase used by the sports editor last year, there was enough grit showed by my team to tar that very stretch of road around Scartaglin!

In particular, Bryan Long and Dave Kenneally rode exceptionally well and you always know Dave’s going strong when he gives you a ‘yeeeeaaaahh’ when the race is at its hottest, as if to say, ‘hey, we’re doin’ okay!..Bryan Long, or crash test as he’s affectionately known is a cute rider and tucks himself neatly into the bunch.

Maybe he’ll shed that horrible nickname come Monday to stealth warrior or something like similar because he’s certainly that.

They were 14^th and 23^rd on the stage respectively and those, are decent results.

Anyway, back to that torturous road...Bottles jumping out of cages -the Dutch teams gasped in horror at the state of the pitch and got many tellings-off from the home guys when they took their hands off the handlebars to pull down their zips on their jackets! These guys are crazy!

Rail thin, usually up towards the front, beautifully tanned buttresses for legs and a waistline that’s more common at an U10 gymnastics event.

They do make this event though, to give them their dues, and on stage one it was Dennis Bakker from the Ruiter Dakkapellen team that came close to taking the stage honours – Corkman Paidi O’Brien edging him in the sprint.

I, unfortunately didn’t have a great day and finished in a group of 35 or so about eight minutes down.

When you get dropped on a climb it’s hard to take but you have to take it and resist the urge to ride yourself into a bodybag to try and get back on, which is often the case.

You pay for that effort on a stage-race like this so myself and Ryan were in that next group on the road, shouldn’t have been, but c’est la vie.

Donnacha was unlucky to puncture before the first KOH, or mountain and when the speed is really hot there going into a climb, a slow wheel change – like the one he got is the worst case scenario.

He is 14 minutes back but riding very well.

Tomorrow, such is the nature of this race and the brutality of the stage, that he could well take all that time back.

We’ll wait and see. Time for a stretch and then it’s lights out.

Stage 2

Day Two down. Halfway there. Are we over the halfway mark mileage? I’m not too sure.

I’ve lost all track of space and time and logic and reason and there’s two words to explain why. Connor Pass.

It mythical. It’s magical. It’s steep. It’s bloody steep and it’s a leg-snapper. No other words to describe and it deserves its reputation as one of the most beautiful climbs in the country. But boy was it painful.

Today’s finale just reminded me of that stage from the 2010 Tour, I think everyone knows where this is going, of when Schleck and Contador dualled it side-by-side to the top.

The wind was here, the mist, the cold, the breeze, the searing brutality of it and those etched faces of pain.

I often wonder how I look, am I in as much pain as my facial expression suggests?

I see some guys and I wonder are they giving birth to elephants but I can only imagine I was a face of sheer misery today.

The stage was dangerously quick but thrilling at the same time.

I think there were three KOH climbs before the Connor Pass and I said at the team meeting this morning that the first one at 40k is the most crucial.

I rode it last year on a mountain bike and struggled so I thought today would be similar but funnily enough it wasn’t, and it was only until I got over it that I thought, hey, I have legs today! Sweet!

These KOH’s are a battle for the front and you have to scrap for every place.

If you’re at the back going into a KOH, good luck to you because youl will get dropped.

Or, at worst, grit your teeth and hang on, ride yourself into the red and the misery will be offset until the next time the road goes up.

Being at the front you almost get swept over the top and before you know it, you’re in the descent. I said this morning that if we all got over this one okay, we’d have good days.

I sensed this morning that we’d have a good day and I was proven right for a change.

You can always tell. Dave was up early and chowing his way through boxes of porridge by the time I joined the table.

I was fourth to the table, Longy was fifth but still, as usual, he looked fresh for an old fella! He was in good spirits, as was everyone.

The ride to the start in Dingle was 40 minutes or so and from the drop of the flag it was super fast.

80kph my speedo read back to me and I thought, please don’t let anyone fall in front of me because I am gonna get flung right into the Atlantic.

Speaking of which, that hostile wind hammered us for the first half of the race and 60k of crosswinds, head-cross, and headwind, is hard hard racing.

But we all felt good and stayed as close to the front as possible. Out of danger.

The second half of the race began to take its toll and I could feel my legs under increasing pressure.

They began to struggle but still at 80k gone, all five of us were in the front group and riding exceptionally well.

Longy was best and just has that permanent look of ‘I’m enjoying this’ on his face.

Dave has legs bigger than my upper body and mashes the gears with impressive strength. Ryan, for a man of 18 and one of the youngest in the race was mixing it up front while Donncha was spinning effortlessly, it seemed anyway.

But myself and Donncha made a mistake and paid dearly for it.

Our team soigneur Ger Moore was in the unofficial feed-zone by Lispole with a bottle for each of us.

Ryan, Longy and Dave all got fed but with two bottles to hand out still, Ger saw myself and Donncha tearing towards him.

I lost. Simply because to go to the side of the road where Ger was, meant riding straight into the wind and as we were on a climb, this was wasting un-necessary energy. Donncha took the risk. I deemed it too much of a risk and now had no bottles, 40k to the finish and relying on energy gels to get me there.

I knew my petrol light was on but I’d passed the last filling station.

I panicked and started to waste more energy in doing so. Sweating, I lost more water.

This is a one way ticket to hell unless I get water. I sucked what drops remained in the bottles and dug in. But the cramps started.

Front and back. I even started to get them in my feet and toes. It was horrific. I offered three riders ten euro for a bottle but they each fobbed me off. As I would have had.

I should have offered them more. I have to get to the Connor Pass with this group or I will lose massive time otherwise.

So I dropped back to the car. It’s hard to do because you leave the safe sanctuary of the bunch and pray you will be able to ride back up. It doesn’t always work. So I was glad to see Colm out the window with the bottles and he gives me the bottle I coveted!

I’m suffering now though and the bunch is riding away.

We’re 20k to go. I have to get back up. Robin Kelly whips past me unawares and I’m sickened I didn’t sit on him because if anyone can rode back up it’s Robin.

But I don’t get back on and I am dying a slow death here. 10k to go.

I reach the bottom of the Connor Pass and break it down into manageable chunks.

1k at a time, 2 and a half laps of a track. It’s purgatory all the way to the top and I start to hear voices. I can’t be far away.

The smattering of people grows to clusters and the volume increases.

2k to go. I jump out of the saddle and hammer it to the top.

A dead weight, I cross the line and Mr Crowley who does a fabulous job of MC for this event tells me there are still 70 riders out there. I lost 13 minutes in 20k. It’s not too bad.

Our men were incredible and though Donncha came in just behind me, Longy is just outside the top 20 overall – ahead of many pre face favourites, Dave is just behind him and Ryan is 12 or so minutes down on the leader Mark Dowling. Not bad for an 18-year-old.

142k tomorrow. Six nasty climbs. Lovely.

Stage 3

t’s that time of night now again and this latest dispatch will be brief I can assure you!

The tiredness sets in and affects your decision making process. You’re more laboured and indecisive.

Climbing stairs is a chore and going down stairs requires the use of hand-rails. My legs are hammered after three days of riding but the good news is, there’s just one more day to go.

It’s hard to put into words how this race affects one mentally.

The key to surviving a stage race like this is energy conservation. Some guys are stealthy enough at it, others waste energy and it’s that look that people give each other, ‘is he mad’ (‘why is he standing when he could be sitting’)...Call me obsessive but I was in bed last night and I could feel a thirst coming on (the radiator is on in the room), but I even wondered will I go downstairs for a drink because those steps will kill me!

I drank bathroom water because it’s the same level as my room.

Anyway, you get the idea, breakfast this morning and Donncha’s ‘Rás stare’ was obvious from first glance, he’s looking at me but not really caring what I’m saying!

It’s that five mile stare where one almost looks dozy. Oh how we’d kill for a few hours more kip!

But we’ve a 50 minute commute to start our days work in Waterville and that, is 142 kilometres over six climbs and this stage, personally, was created by the angriest of men on his worst day in my opinion.

The stage winner usually has to get tested afterwards to see is he made out of sheer granite or just some sort of composite material.

That man today was Connor Murphy. Chapeaux to you sir. Murphy is a man with far more stage racing experience than my whole team combined and was a very popular winner today.

I’m still a novice when it comes to this race and today, I got a painful lesson and I’m struggling to find words as to where and what and how went wrong.

But all I can say is, it could have been worse and for some, it was a lot worse, but that’s clutching. It could have been better and more importantly, it should have been.

Success for me this weekend is doing all I can on each stage.

Not having one joule of energy at the finish constitutes a good day, even if that is last on the road, so be it. Friday and Saturday I was happy, because I rode hard all day and with a little more training, I could have been much higher.

But today, the short answer is, I was badly positioned going into the first KOH somewhere near Ballinskelligs, the bunch lined it out, somebody let the wheels go on front of me, the gap is opening and my window of opportunity to jump onto the tail of the bunch is closing.

It’s a split second decision, do I sprint and try to make it or do I wait here and hope to catch them on the descent. I went for the latter because this is only 20k into the race and if I sprint to get on, blow up further up the climb, then I have gone into the red and will have 120k to the finish struggling to recover.

What did I say about energy conservation?

So a bunch of 15 or so rode tempo home, over every climb. And As I’m p***** off I’m entitled to a rant so it goes like this, why would anyone in a small bunch that has lost 30 minutes to the leader attack those around him on each climb and race like there are KOH points on offer?, and then complain of having cramp further down the road and then not being able to ride through at the front so we can all get home quicker and end this misery? That’s all I’ll say.

As regards the other guys on my team, again Bryan Long and Dave showed they’re up there with the best and finished in a group less than two minutes behind Murphy while Donncha and Ryan were in the next group at 16 minutes.

Stage 4

Well it’s over for another year and Rás Mumhan 2012 for me, and many others, will be remembered in that most unforgiving of three-letter cycling acronyms, DNF.

DID. NOT. FINISH. The only thing that’s worse than a DNF is a DNS and that doesn’t take a rocket scientist to decipher its meaning.

I’m sitting here now after the race, still shivering, and thinking, did I make the right call? I spent the last 25k thinking, will I regret this decision in the car on the way home, next week, the week after. When people ask me how did that race in Kerry go for you, my answer will be, ‘ah, okay, it was hard.’

To the uninitiated that will draw out the next question, ‘where did you finish?’ and I’ll say ‘I didn’t...’

I wondered how I’d feel when that conversation moves swiftly onto something different because that’s what will happen. It’s hard to draw positives from a situation like this. But, as strange as it sounds, I’m quite content and I’d do exactly the same thing again. My head is up, not down. Why?
Well the race was as hard and as fast and as dangerous as I’ve ever experienced. It could be mental, it probably is, but rolling out of Killorglin this morning and the rain lashing off the road made for a miserable enough mood in the bunch. Everyone knew there would be casualties because during the rolling start down the hill in the town, wheels were touching already — the race hadn’t even started yet though. Some lunatics (one of my team-mates included) decided on carbon rims over aluminium rims! 

To a non cyclist, this means you might as well not have brakes on your bike! When it rains hard, it pelts a greasy road and forms a slick on the surface that makes it difficult to control a bike. When this gloopy paste is on your rims, it’s even worse. Factor in the man-hole covers and pot holes that were full with water (so you don’t know there is one until you hammer into it) and it just amplifies the hardship.

After three days’ racing, I could see from the start that bodies were tired and heads were down. In physiotherapy terms it’s called ‘compensation’- saving energy on some muscles to use somewhere else. It sounds like a mad concept but there’s proof in it down here.

At every team meeting last night, including our own, the message was, ‘get to the front and stay out of danger at the start’ but as I mentioned in an earlier post, 180 or so riders trying to be up the front is a recipe for disaster.

Now, I wasn’t in the race long enough to see or hear a crash but I know from experience that this thing happens all the time and I’m just not ready for one. If I was high up on GC, I’d stay here and suffer but down around 100th place or so, it’s just not worth it.

So when my legs gave out after a fast start, my head went and I said, ‘I don’t need this, I don’t want this’. There’s a long season and coming into this race under-prepared, I’m not sure what else I expected but it’s just one of those unforgiving moments.

Team cars pass you by and it’s funny, you have heads and arms and limbs sticking out the window offering you a bottle, a push, a rain-jacket, probably a bible there somewhere as well if I looked but nothing can save me now. I credit those with their hands out but my race is run. I’m cooked. I cannot pedal one more metre. I have exhausted every ounce of energy and I am fried. I don’t want to get burnt because I might not pedal for six months if I do.

So, with one hand on the handlebars and the other waving the respective team cars onwards to catch up with the race, I pull over, and say ‘that’s that’. A bus passed me at the most inopportune time and drenched me with splash-water but I just laughed. C’est la vie. Donncha had a similar day to myself, his body just gave out. He wasn’t p***** off, he gave what he could and that’s all we asked of ourselves at the first meeting.

To my team who rode incredibly all weekend. Longy, Dave and Ryan, they all finished and resembled Joe Frazier after ‘that’ fight with Ali. Puffy bloodshot eyes, drool pouring from the corners of their mouths, shoulders slumped. But they put our team, Finance First/Wills Wheels/Cork County on the radar with 12th on the team classification, out of 28 teams.

To the background team of our masseuse -Colm, our ‘mother’ for the weekend (she has asked me to keep her name anonymous) and to Ger Long our manager, a big thank you.

Colm and his partner had a baby six months ago but he left them in Dublin on his first Easter to be here for us, giving us nightly massages, making life easier for us. He’s there first at the finish line with a kind word, a warm jacket and a drink. He owns Fitnessworx gym in Douglas and could have made more money for less hassle at home or with his partner. Not Colm though.

Our ‘mother’ cooked three meals for eight men every day. Decent meals too. She would have trimmed the fat off the meat if I asked her. She cleaned up, washed up, had the water hot and the porridge thick, because we asked her. An incredible performance!

And Ger Long; no wonder he was smiling because his son rode his socks off for the team and finished just outside the top 20 but well inside many pre-race favourites. He said the right things, did the right things, and when I threw the bike in the corner after the race, he clipped off my race number and returned it to sign-on, because we faced a fine otherwise. No fuss. That’s Ger.

Finally a massive thanks to our sponsors for making the weekend happen and everyone who supported us over the weekend!

Thanks for reading.

Stats

So far in 2012, 84 activities 95% of which was road cycling.
Total distance covered 3555kms,
Total time training, 141 hrs 42 mins
Elevation gain 19,156 metres
Average speed 27.1 kph
Average heart rate 137

Last 7 days, 18hrs 40 mins on the bike, 610 kms @ average speed of 32.7 kph

First International 4 day stage race completed.
12 days of road racing completed as of 6th april 2012

If i do nothing else in 2012 it will still be considered a success.

I need a flippin break!

My emails at the mo' go like this!

Well i am tired today and i bet you are too, even if your not feeling that way. You need to chill the funk out today and tomo before the test. It will be interesting to see the results, not that you need them really as last weekend was all the results you needed,

It would i guess be nice to see what areas you should focus on more? training when there is no racing involved is far easier but trying to balance your week with a weekend of 2 races can be hard to get right, i  know i find it complicated, trying to get enough done with out dulling the senses for racing, which lets face it is the prioroity and the most benifical to your end goal, the rás.

So with this in mind i was thinking that you could make saturday a Rás type stage, from what i have heard it is mental hard for an hour and then steady ish with surges here and there for another 3 to 3.5 hours after that. So just do a regular warm up 20- 30 mins, like we did last week but a bit longer, 4 or 5 10 secs jumps, eat and drink as if you are doing a 4 hour stage, have a jacket, puncture repair stuff, food and another bottle ready in your car.

Ride the TT hard, not balls out 'i could not speak for half an hour after' hard but average in the low 160's, proceed immediately to your car, zero hanging around, get your stuff and away you go, keep her in the 135 to 145 region with 3 or 4 efforts of 4 to 5 mins in the high 150's low 160's, have plenty recovery between efforts, 20 mins or more, choose a route on ride with gps before hand, choose a lumpy route, a few 2-3 minute hills to mimic des hanlon would be great. Try to stay on your bike the entire time, eat and drink as normal. HAve a recovery drink or food ready in the car to consume immediately after. YOu would be looking to do 100km in the ride after the TT, so use that number to plan/draw your route.

This will tie in great with the des hanlon length wise and ras mumhan, also it will free up the days after, which based on what you have been doing the last while should be rest. Ride for a couple hours max on the tuesday, nothing hard and you will be fired up for your session with the lads on wednesday, no bike on thursday, 80 mins on friday, the race lucan on Saturday and Carlow Sunday. You then need to look back and see when you should have a rest week, i have a feeling it could be the week after des hanlon? Which would be good as you could start with a long group ride on the sat and sunday, or race one of those days (thats April 1st weekend) (either way, 2 long training rides, hilly or a long ride and race) rest monday, a hard session on the tuesday, hill repeats or intervals, e.g 4 by 7 mins all out, then recovery type rides on the wed and thursday, Friday the is the start of ras mumhan!

I know you like details, hope this helps

Donncha

The reply was,
"great stuff
i presume you will be dong the same
Iv got a bit of a cold but hopefully it will be ok"

To which i wrote,
"yeah i will be virtually the same, the only difference i could foresee is if i felt very tired i would skip a day and rest, i have been doing that now and again when i hear my body and its been keeping me well and more importantly ready to really go when i need. I read ina running book that 'it is better to be at the starting line 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained' and i am keeping that in mind, obviously i am looking aiming for 100% trained and rested! :)

The cold is probably due to the intense effort you have made in the last week, if it does not improve/get worse cancel the test, dose up on vit c etc. any pains below the neck, like any little thing that is out of sink, cancel the test, your body is asking you to slow down and let it recover.

I am hummming and hawing about going to new bridge on sunday, on the on e hand it would be great to race but on the other its a long frigging ways for a race, also i would have to cycle to the city, 45 miles to get a lift! something tells me i will be on the 'o so handy' ! priests leap instead, which is fine but jeez i am loving the racing at the mo'

Donncha

These some up where i am at right now and where i hope to go, it could be an amazing year !! :)

Race prep

The forecast (long range) for sunday is wet and windy and temp only 6-9,
So think about what you will wear, i would go for a running vest, short sleeve jersey, arm warmers and a gilet in the back pocket, my thinking on the gilet is if i got dropped i would go to the back of the group i end up in and put it on, as you will be riding slower and i would def get cold or it just might be freezing in the bunch too. Full finger gloves you are used too could well be the way to go, my hands were cold last week (in mitts) and it was a fine day.

THink, can you get a hot shower after (you really do not want to drive back to galway and get a cold) even if it means sourcing a swimming pool or friends house near by ,it would be well worth it, research this. They may have facilities but there will be a big crowd. Do not hang around at the end talking, straight to car, out of clothes, recovery drink/food, have it ready.
dose up on vit c that evening, 700-800 mg.

maybe take it easy or indeed off on the monday to aid recovery, it is a step up in distance and intensity.
Also due to the distance, (approx total time, 3 hour 15 mins @25mph) plan your food intake before and during, i would do this, 3 hours before, good solid meal/breakfast (of course incl some protein, eggs, nuts etc), 2 hrs to 90 mins before get 750 mls fluid in,(this will be in the car so have  abottle made up and sip away as you drive, 1 hour before coffee (strong) and a couple nutri grains. 20 mins before a gel and 200 mls water.Before the start drain every last drop you can (i did 4 small piss's in the last 20 mins last sunday! people were urinating enmasse)

On the bike its your preference,bring food that will not go to shit in your pocket and that you can eat/open with cold fingers/wet gloves. guidelines;  60 grams carbs an hour, 500 mls fluid (min) an hour (min), (so with 2 full 750 bottles you will be fine for the duration of the race, dropping back to the car for one and taking one? well thats your call!

I know i have said/written this before but i have to go back over this stuff too, get into the habit, make a tick list/timeline, laminate it, have it in your gear bag or taped to your dash board, use it.
No pint in driving all thats ways , doing all that training, making all that effort, spending all that money on carbon bikes and beetroot  and coming undone because of something basic/simple.

Even if there was one little thing in there that made you twig, 'yes i forgot that last sunday' it was worth my while writing such a long e-mail!

yours in racing,
Donncha

Sometimes i wish it was like this!

class!

EXACTLY!

Sometimes i feel like a shallow, self important, twat for allowing excercise to consume me. It really is only a pass time. I have children, a wife, lots of bills i struggle to pay and despite this 80% of the time i am lost in thoughts like "i havent done a strength session in 6 days" or " i only trained 5 out of the seven days this week" o god like that extra session would elevate me to superstardom and allow me to be a carded world class athlete getting the 'grant', for the love of god man, you are joe average, you have never run a sub 3 hour marathon (not even close) you have never rode a sub 1 hour 40km TT both of which are hardly ground breaking feats of human endeavour!

I think this is, EXACTLY! what i am trying to say.

Hunky dory salt and vinegar all the way :)

Still training hard

I have been giving it hell since my last entry, A couple of 15 hour weeks, one of which was followed by a 10 mile running race in which i did a PB (1.04.09) on what is supposed to be the hilliest 10 mile in Ireland. I have only been running once a week because of the trying to pack in the mileage on the bike. The runs i have been doing are usually 10-15 km and have hard efforts so still hanging on to my running fitness, just. So far in 2012 i have done 1200 kms on the bike and now feel solid on the 4 hour aerobic efforts. My first proper race is sunday week the 26th feb in Tralee in the Lacey Cup.

I am nervous as it has been an age since i did road racing and it is one tough sport, at least the first race is handicapped and we A3's will get a few minutes lead on the stronger A2 and A1 riders, it will be interesting to say the least. I have also joined Cork County CC and got a full race license from cycling Ireland. I will be competing in the International Ras Mumhan on the 4 days over the Easter Weekend, it will be a big step up fro me but despite some butterflys floating around my stomach as i write this i am in great shape and looking forward to the experience, just need to keep focused and get the training and racing done now.

First race of 2012

Had the first real hard effort of the season on sunday, in Tracton woods, very tough with the muck but a great course. Finished 4th in the munster ranks, but for a mechanical near the end i would have been 2nd, felt ill with the effort of the first hill! god racing is hard when you have been away for a while but i did get into it and rode fairly well considering i trained hard all week and for the last 4 weeks with no breaks, also i have only done a very limited amount of threshold stuff, so very happy with where i am at the end of jan.

My prótege Alex was flying and won Juniors, i think if he raced elites he would have been right up with me, which is where he needs to be. Great to see, hopefully he will stay with the sport and by next year be a minute or 2 ahead of me in races, if so he could have a chance of a junior national medal, the ultimate goal for us both as coach and athlete. Good day out and very well organised by MBCC.

Winter sickness

Sure with the non stop mist and shite weather i had to get sick at some stage. I got the winter vomiting bug and to be honest i got off light, just 3 and a half days of sleeping and lethargy. Finally today i got out today on a road spin for an hour, felt ok but still recovering. Shite wet, windy day but still nice to actually have the energy to get out the house, av 27km, 27km ride.

Pre getting sick i did a super ride at 143 av hr for 2.47 hrs, to and from inishannon, bonked pretty hard near the end which is something that has not happened in ages, was weak went i got home, ate in my soaking clothes and felt worn out for hours after. Did not eat enough beforehand, duffus! av 32 km with the wind out and 25km! on the way back, stayed between 140 and 150 for all of it. These are the rides i need to be doing alot of for the next 4 weeks.

Looking forward to taking it handy in basketball tonite and being healthy and strong fro the week ahead.
Loving the bike at the moment.

Lough hyne trail reverse twice

Nice run this morning with Sean an Kieran this morning. Click link below.

Lough hyne reverse twice by donncha at Garmin Connect - Details

2012 begins

So after taking a week off and drinking plenty beer and eating shite it was back to business this morning.(i did do a 2 sessions on wed and thurs in the father n laws shed, on the excercise bike and some squats and the like, 40 mins sessions) I felt very tired but struggled out of bed at 7.45am just in time to  open the back door for Alex, he was in great form as usual. I was excited for him as it was his first proper long group road spin. We headed to skibb and hooked up with a group of 7 triathletes. I have done alot of group riding and so was a bit surprised at the total lack of cohesion in the group, basically we were all over the place, i did try to instill a bit of dicipline but did not want to be a pain in the hole either, so it kinda ended up as 9 guys cycling individually whilst being near each other!

Anyway it still was a nice ride and when Alex and i got back to Drinagh 94 km or there abouts later, total padalling time of 3.37 hours, we were well spent. Tough good ride to start the year off. Alex did great although i am keen to get out with him in a proper group ride.

Road bike, Drinagh-Toormore by donncha at Garmin Connect - Details