When mañana arrives - you'd better be ready!!

#TrailTuesday - nightime trail runs

I get so distracted that I forget to update this little thing of a blog that is supposed to keep my training honest.

It's so easy to let it slip, slide away. Skipping a day leads so easily to a week or 4 of doing little or nothing.

"Mañana, mañana" so easily becomes the refrain.

I'm often always motivated by what others are doing and it helps if I do something to motivate them to motivate me kinda like a Gerry Maguire senario :)

This is how #TrailTuesday, #AKWRunstreak and #Zero25k came about. By organising a group event I 'encourage' myself to not back down. I know I have to organise my Tuesday so I meet the group, I get my exercise. I know with Runstreak I have to help motivate others and by default motivate myself. 

Zero25k I get a great kick out of it. By encouraging others to begin  I get to reaffirm the realisation of how fortunate I am that I run. 

I choose to run. How I motivate myself to run comes across as selfish but we all need different tricks to keep going sometimes.

So for the past month I have been training away and now I am building my base mileage through to the New Year when the next generation of Zero25k runners will start and my next group challenge begins for the experienced runners.

Will you be ready for it?

[Training Diary] Week in Review & Back to Ballyhoura

Week ending 19th October: 

Date	Run Distance	Bike Distance	Time	Avg BPM	AvgPace/Km	KCal
13 Oct 2014	9.5		00:49:38	147	00:05:13	787
14 Oct 2014		9.6	00:23:40	141		343
14 Oct 2014	11.82		00:57:59	156	00:04:54	1009
15 Oct 2014	9.52		00:52:01	148	00:05:27	830
15 Oct 2014		9.5	00:25:15	137		355
16 Oct 2014		9.73	00:27:29	137		387
16 Oct 2014	11.63		00:59:56	156	00:05:08	1059
19 Oct 2014		23.74	02:00:43	148		1933

Taking a look at the second half of the week the basic premise is I am wrecked.
The kids, daughter mostly, have attrocious sleeping habits. It's like a merry-go-round in our house with everyone swapping beds. I'm normally a sound sleeper but when I'm woken in the night I don't go back easily and often end up reading for 2 or 3 hours.

Post Lactate Threshold testing

Last Thursday I was over with +Matthew Bidwell of Fitness Analytics in Claregalway to have my Lactate Threshold Tested. I planned a really long and complicated post explaining what the process was but with HR being so individual I decided to just summarise it and show what it means to my training.

Finding your way in Orienteering

An event invite from Western Eagles Galway Orienteering popped up on my Facebook timeline a few weeks back and I added myself as a plan for a Sunday morning outing with the family.

My son loves maps and is always drawing treasure maps which only he can follow so I pitched the idea to the family for a bit of fun outing.

Edel has never done orienteering, its been 20+ years since I did any (outside of +Beast of Ballyhoura Adventure Race this year) and its great fun for the kids to go exploring in the woods.

So off we went this morning to register at Merlin Park Woods in Galway. We were handed two maps and two control cards.

Getting the maps and outline instructions

Ruaidhri had it all worked out that we would work as a team with him and daddy going one way and the girls going the other way.

He's 4.

Once I explained the map and what we would be doing he decided we could all go together. He was 'Chief Navigator', daddy was assistant, mummy was the controller in charge of dibbing in at the stations and Rachel was scout, who took instruction on directions and found the control points.

Chief navigaor pointing out the way.

All sorted and off we went. The course was mapped out nicely and the first control points were easy to pick out. Once we were into the woods we had options of following trails or cutting through the woods.

We had to make team decision on what route to choose and at one point after explaining that (1). we could go through the woods but if we got stuck we'd have to turn back and go around or (2). we could stick to the main path and make good progress.

The scout decided to stick to the path.
 

 

Fun in the sun.

There was one sticky situation towards the end where we pushed through a trail in the woods to find we were heading away from our goal. Doubling back along the fence line we found a gap and with a quick one, two the kids were fired over and we followed off to CP8.

From here it was a short trot back towards CP9 and a circum-navigation of a fenced area back to the starting point were scout ensured that the team was together (good practise for #AdventureRacing) before dibbing in and handing back the control cards.

All in all a great morning adventure and the best thing is there will be another event in 2 weeks time in Renville Park.

Keep an eye on the Western Eagles blog or Facebook page for more details. If you are are looking for a fun way to get fit and involve the family, orienteering is a great option.

[10km Focus] - Week 1: The plan so far...

The plan so far has been of the 'wing it' variety. It is also likely to remain so for the next few weeks too.

I'm working on base mileage and introducing speed work as I go with increasing focus on longer and longer tempo sessions at slightly faster than race pace but the lynchpin of the training, I believe, will be based on interval sessions of 200m and 400m repeated over and over and over bringing these down to 47 & 95 seconds respectively.

So far this week has looked like this:

40	29 Sep 2014	9.5	00:50:07							146	00:05:16	782
40	29 Sep 2014	9.5	00:49:00							150	00:05:09	802
40	30 Sep 2014					9.5	00:19:54			134		267
40	30 Sep 2014					9.53	00:20:26			132		266
40	1 Oct 2014	9.47	00:47:26							148	00:05:00	757
40	2 Oct 2014	9.5	00:49:34							141	00:05:13	723
40	2 Oct 2014	9.46	00:49:56							143	00:05:16	745

Green is running (km and time), Orange is bike (km and time). In Pink is Average Heart Rate, Pace (running) and Calories, I'll keep this format going forward, oh and blue is swimming! (Once upon a time!!)

Wednesday evening (1st Oct) was the interval session:

• Warmup - 3km
• 8 x 
• 200m in 55secs
• 200m recovery

• Cooldown - 3km 

Happy enough that I brought the 200's in around 47-48seconds each.

Another double run Saturday and possibly a longer steady pace run on Sunday should have a decent block of running to start this program with.

[RANT] Country roads take me home (& to work)...

My commute, daily, in and out is mostly along country roads.

Quiet country roads.

At least, that is, until there are roadworks on the main roads.

Then every divil in the County uses my road as a bolt hole, an escape route, a rat run.

Going for goal - Sub40 10k

In the absence of an Autumn marathon goal - it was to be +TCS Amsterdam Marathon - due to circumstances this year these plans were shelved early and I've been drifting along with no structure or training format.

Things have changed recently which means I can be a little more structured in my approach to work and exercise so I have decided to train towards a sub 40 minute 10k in November.

The +Amphibian King West - Galway Clarinbridge 10k will be a bit ambitious, with just 7 weeks to go, but I need a target. Aiming for Fields of Athenry while suiting most training plans is not imminent enough to motivate me.

Doing proper speedwork is going to be new to me, I've never really tackled it properly in the past. I at least have an advantage of having the course literally on my doorstep so come 7 weeks I will know every single step and stone on that course.

Here we go....Week 1 awaits!!

Creating workouts on Polar Flow

Tinkering around a bit with @PolarGlobal Flow website at the moment (it's still in Beta) trying to be creative with a few workouts and set up a Training Diary again.

Unfortunately it is no ProTrainer5 software nor is it like the setup on PolarPersonalTrainer.com where phase limited but advanced workouts could be created. Hopefully this will change when the next firmaware update on the #V800 includes cycling metrics like power and cadence.

For now I am working with time based phases with Heart Rate limits to bring my turbo sessions back on stream. Anything is better than nothing at the moment and if I give the bike a good 45 mins this evening sure it can do me no harm.

Can it?

[RACE REPORT] Not Fit to #AchillROAR

From time to time -as a result of sponsorship arrangements - I get invited to partake in events and #AchillROAR was one of these events which I have a new interest in on account of my exploits in adventure racing this year.

Seasonal Slump

Often at this stage of the year your body can go into a little bit of a slump. The weather is changing, the days are getting shorter, you're tired after a long summer with the kids under your feet, work has been hectic and you have been squeezing exercise into an ever decreasing time slot.

You're bound to be tired. You are bound to be demotivated somewhat.

But do you know what?

Forgetting about the plan for one or two runs won't spoil your overall goals. Head out for something different, if you are road running go to a trail for a few runs to find the gra for it again.

By taking the pressure off and changing the route you will be amazed at the difference it makes and how quickly you will find that running mojo again.

[RACE REPORT] - Club Vitae Coast Road 5km

If you are in work there is Sound below which can be muted!

Episode I: The Lough Derg Beast

A pig on a spit seemed fitting breakfast in Oranmore

Time to wrap this journey up.
Depending on how you look at this post it will be the beginning or the end of my 2014 Beast of Ballyhoura race report.

Episode III: The Beastly River

Ok, just to be clear, I'm writing this race report in reverse order or to be honest in order of decreasing pain and frustration. Like everyone who took part, I want to go out on a high with the Beast of Ballyhoura.

Team #TriHarder were are an awesome team and I don't want to be taking away from the performance.

Episode II: The Protracted Beast

The hardest part of a race report is rationalising the emotions that you felt during the race with what is perceived to be normal after the race.

It is very easy to let frustrations build up, especially in a long event and allow them cloud your judgement over what would be considered petty things in 'real-life'. Dealing effectively with these frustrations is one of the secrets to having a successful event team. If your team can 'get-over' the issues and move on without killing one another or bearing grudge then you have the makings of an awesome team regardless of the result.

Team #TriHarder is one of those teams.

Episode IV: The Beast Bites Back

I knew by the silence what was going through the heads of the rest of the team. It was a big decision. Not one taken lightly by me and with full consideration of what it would mean to Kate, Mike and Warren.


I was the compromise. I was the one stopping the team.

Thank you @Orca_Triathlon for your Team #TriHarder support

One of the emails last week form the organisers of the +BeastofBallyhoura mentioned that wetsuits were advised for a portion of the event which will be water based:

Wetsuits
We'll transport your wetsuits to the start of the swim, to be honest we don't think you'll need to use them so it might be best to keep them in your teams dry bag for use later on in the race.
We've requested that each person brings a full length wetsuit, both arms and legs, the section with the water based task will be the main area we expect teams to wear these, if you read the website we've said that they will be used in caving/coasteering type activities in other words there may be some rocks about, these could be likely to do damage to both you and your wetsuit. When the task was tested both us and our wetsuits came to no harm but we would like to keep you all in the race to the finish line so please make sure you bring the kit we are asking for, it's there for a reason. By the way the water will be cold ;) The long arms and leg cover will protect you from both the cold and the rocks.

 This put the fear of God in us. As you may know triathletes are fierce proud of their top notch equipment and the thoughts of damaging my precious Orca 3.8 frankly caused a lack of sleep.

A call to my friendly Orca manager had him coming to our assistance with a bevy of TRN wetsuits which would be capable of taking a thrashing and our good suits would come to no harm!

Whew!!!

What's the TRN wetsuit?

Well briefly it was developed as a training suit so you could thrash it on the beach, in the pool, in rough water, exit, egress conditions and not worry about damaging the top quality race suits like the Sonar, 1.5 or 3.8.

Here's the skinny:

Orca's TRN is the world's first ever training-specific wetsuit. If you're after a second wetsuit for regular training, look no further. This reliable, durable complement to your race gear offers you the best of both worlds: enabling you to potect your higher end wetsuit while serving as a solid companion to your sea or pool training. The TRN lite's 2mm smooth skin neoprene front and back with flat lock stitching balances flexibility, buoyancy and thermal protection. 2mm Yamamoto 39-cell neoprene on the shoulder panels provides excellent range of motion. High strech jersey side panels offer flexibility and comfort through the full swim stroke and kick. The TRN lite's polyester lining helps protect it from the effects of chlorine and warm water.

Hats off to Orca for rowing in at a moment's notice and thank you very much for the help and support from all at Team #TriHarder.

Tracking the Beast

3 more sleeps!!!

The emails are coming thick and fast with information on gear and preparations required. It's definitely not about who can bike the best, or run the best or the fastest swimmer.

Something entirely new for most of Team #Triharder for sure, but we're relishing the challenge and are most definitely up for it at the weekend. The training has been done, the team building has been done, it's all going to come down to putting it all together on the day(s) and making it happen for each other.

More information about the stages and preparing for them is being 'leaked' out on email over the past few days and when we are going from a a guesstimated 4-6 hours Stage 1 to a minimum 10 hour Stage 1 you know there is a new level of sadism involved in the organistation especially when you are being warned of blood sucking ticks, nettle beds and brambles.

(I actually googled some tick images to embed them here and my skin started to crawl, so I left them out, see how nice I am to you!)

Anyway there is a live tracker set up which will be active on the weekend www.beastofballyhoura.com/live you can follow along the 'progress' of Team #TriHarder and there's plenty of craic on Twitter all this week too!! Join us via my own feed @Amphkingwest with the hashtag #TriHarder

Look forward to hearing from you :)

You gotta #TriHarder

Lough Derg in the morning.

A review of last weekend's training - Time for some teamwork.

With the Beast of Ballyhoura just over 2 weeks away it was kinda getting to the time for a little team work. Mike and I had worked well in #Endure24 and didn't kill each other (apart from noxious gases) over the long hours in close proximity, I think laughing had a lot to do with that. It was time to bring some of the jigsaw together last weekend.

To be honest I was a bit anxious as history shows I'm not the best Mountain Biker in the province, by a long shot. So far in my MTB experience I'm a '2fer' (Out twice, accident twice) so I was wary of what we would be up to.

Plan was Saturday night #MTB on the Ballyhoura trails. This was after less than 5 hours sleep on Friday night, a Saturday morning trail run, a day in work so I was all set up to test the endurance and effect of tiredness.

Anyhow, down to Ballyhoura, met up with TriHarder teammate Kate, made the introductions, offloaded the bikes, kitted up and off we went warming up on the road to the trails. Warren was to meet up with us in a wee while so we did a couple of laps of the Skills Loops starting with 1 and then Skills Loop 2. Back to the carpark and discovered Warren was still on route somewhere and we'd have an hour so quick decision to head off on the longer brown trail and set him the task of the green so we'd finish sometime together.

Kate experienced a spectacular off. I was at the back and just watched as her bike, bucked, bounced and fired her off over the bars. On inspection we discovered she'd clipped a stump which launched her into the heather between two piles of rocks. Poor Kate giggled her way down the hill with bruised & cut knees nursing her front wheel which was destroyed.

Perfect alignment for cornering!!!

Limping back to the cars, the one positive was my bike no longer squeaked the loudest!. We met Warren on the road, easily identified as a #TriHarder as we were the only eejits biking up there at night :)

Warren had his own issues with a puncture and was making his way back to the car too.

Loaded up and off we went to Mikes for showers, tea, repairs and discussion til the wee hours.

Mike the Mechanic

Got to the point at 1:30 where, "ah sure we may as well go on out for a trek." "Sure, we're on the bikes in 3.5hrs, no point sleeping now" at which point I nudged Warren and told him to make a break for bed. Kate full of beans on adrenaline was bouncing around the place like a bluebottle. She was next to be sent packing!!

2hrs of kip on the sofa broken only by the vision of Mike trying to suffocate me with a blanket and we were back on point. Coffee, porridge and more coffee and we were off to Killaloe for Day 2.

Parking at UL Activity Centre we followed the marked trails for the East Clare Way and MTB'd our way up making a decision to dump them and trek our way to the top.

(Note: Our maps were slightly out of date so we dumped earlier than necessary ~1km)

Job done, time to hump it back down, pick up the bikes and let her rip to Killaloe where the plan was to go up the other side looking for Graves of the Leinster Men.

A minor navigation error kept us on the main road rather on the walking route, but chief mapreader Warren soon put us right and up towards Tountinna where we biked to the top, enjoyed the view, grabbed a sandwich before hiking over the top to look for the Graves.

We allocated time to our search as we had to be back at UL Activity Centre for 11am. (Yes! Most of this was done before many had rolled over in their beds! :) )

Checking the map we realised the Graves were in a very arbritary position and we were the wrong side of that for easy access. About turn, back to the bikes and

WHEEEEEEEEE!!! all the way down again :) :)

Kate caught a rear puncture. 'Pitstop Pete' changed it in 4 mins from stop to go and we were off again catching the boys who we reckoned were in Ballina slurping down a 99.

A

All that was left was a 2 hour practical lesson in handling sit-on-top kayaks with Mike Jones. This was a steep learning curve for me and part of my issue is trying to understand the physics of what my paddling is doing rather than just finding a groove and letting it happen.

As the team said, we've 53km in the Beast to figure it out!! (Minimum 53km)

All in all a great weekend of training, bonding, figuring things out, planning and we're all about set for a few more 'wind-down' sessions before toeing the line in 2 weeks time!!!

Have you ever done anything like this before? All advice is welcomed.

A quick word about our sponsors...@RonhillUK.

As you may know I am training as part of Team Triharder to take part in The Beast of Ballyhoura.

I am lucky in my position with work to be in touch with some of the most amazing specialist brands on the market (all of whom we stock in +Amphibian King West - Galway and +Amphibian King West - Limerick )

As part of our mandatory kit for The Beast we are required to have fully waterproof jacket and waterproof trousers.

As it turns out +RonhillUK have off the shelf specialist jackets and trousers and are supporting Team Triharder with a complete set for each team member!!

Awesome, thankyou Ronhill!!

Spec on the Trail Tempest Jacket-

• Market leading super-lightweight waterproof running jacket
• Aqualite fabric
• Mountain marathon event regulation spec
• Just 250 grms.
• 2.5 layer hydrophilic coating
• Waterproof to a minimum 10,000mm hydrostatic head
• Breathable: minimum 15,000 g/m2/24hours (mVtr)

Spec on the Trail Tempest Trousers-

• Super lightweight, waterproof, & complementary, running pant for the trail tempest Jacket.
• Aqualite fabric
• Mountain marathon event regulation spec
• Just 166 grms.
• 2.5 layer hydrophilic coating
• Waterproof to a minimum 10,000mm hydrostatic head
• Breathable: minimum 15,000 g/m2/24hours 
•  

Other equipment suppliers will be coming on board. If you have a product you feel is suitable for Adventure Racing and would like us to field test or review, we'd be delighted to help :)

The Beast is Stirring

So with #Endure24 behind us now, the full focus is on The Beast of Ballyhoura for the coming weeks.

Information is being 'leaked' about the course and the sense of tension is palpable as the team learn more about the challenge each day.

At the start of July we received the following information:

2014 Beast Route Minimum Distances For Each Section.

• Start Short Foot Orienteering 1km
• Section 1.1 Kayak 20km
• Section 1.2 Swim 600m
• Section 1.3 Foot Orienteering 11km
• Section 1.4 Kayak 13km
• TA1 Kit/Bike Boxes
• Section 2.1 Mountain Bike 50km
• Section 2.2 Water Based Task 3.5km
• Section 2.3 Mountain Bike 38km
• Section 2.4 Foot Based Task 1km-5km
• Section 2.5 Mountain Bike 28km
• TA2 Kit Boxes
• Section 3.1 Kayak 20km
• Section 3.2 Foot Orienteering 25km
• TA3 Kit Boxes
• Section 4.1 Mountain Bike 27km
• Section 4.2 Foot Orienteering 5km
• Section 4.3 Mountain Bike 20km
• Finish

And then we learn a little more about each discipline:

Race Disciplines

• Mountain biking – teams should be prepared for a range of riding including single track, steep hills, gravel roads and sealed roads.


• Trekking – will involve travelling by foot through rugged and diverse terrain. The Irish hills can be wet and boggy in places. 


• Kayaking – kayaks will be provided by race organizers. Kayaking may be on inland rivers or lakes. Generally kayaking will be permitted during both day and night. Some of the rivers may have weirs. Teams will be advised in advance about any obstacles. There will be a dark zone in operation for the kayak stage


• Swimming - teams will be required to cross rivers. there will also be a swim section (minimum of 2 members per team must swim) 2 * 300 meters, PFD’s will be available if you feel you need one.


• Rope work. Could include abseiling, traversing, ascending etc.


• Orienteering – orienteering is an extremely important part of the race. The course is not marked and teams are required to navigate using maps.


• Special - as always you should expect some surprises, and special tasks

The night kayak could be interesting though the total (minimum) 53k of kayaking is going to be a hell of an upper body workout!

Currently looking at some training day options to see if we can all day hire kayaks and throw in a little bit of orienteering / mountain trekking to clean up rusty map skills. Ropework, swimming and trekking is fine. Mountain biking, well you know my history there, but a planned 163k (minimum!) could feel like 300k if there is loads of climbing.

Plenty of planning to arrange the kit and ensure each zone is properly fuelled and equiped. At least we will have access to the transition zone or team kit boxes 3 times so the travelling load can be broken up a bit.

Not called The Beast for nothing!!

Three men, a tent, 24hrs and a tub of Vaseline

I've been trying to get my head around a report after an epic weekend of running at #Endure24. I'm not sure of the sensations that my body is feeling but there is a ton of elation, satisfaction & pride to go along with the swollen feet, sore legs and tiredness.  

The Background:
A few weeks ago I got an email invitation from +Mizuno RunningUK about an event that was coming up, Endure 24, a trail running event on a 5mile loop with solo runners or teams runnign over 24hours. A Le Mans for runners.

Me being me, thought, "Yeah, that's mad, let's do that!" and immediately went about roping in my Beast of Ballyhoura cohort Mike and my wife Edel to form the Team #AKWest.
Unfortunately due to work commitments Edel was unable to travel but with a last minute ' volunteer' substitute on Friday last in the form of Noel we were back to a 3 person team. Noel called into the shop in Limerick for a chat, I hadn't seen him in a while and he asked what the plans for the weekend were, as you do. When I told him, running around a forest for 24hours he laughed. Soon changed his tune and talked himself into joining us :)

We managed through the power of Twitter to get the seats transferred before he changed his mind and that was that. He stayed with me Friday night and 3am Saturday we were en-route to Dublin Airport.

The Journey:
Now there are a number of "do as I say, not as I do" moments over this weekend. Number 1 is nutrition.

We got up at 3am and the first mistake was turning down the opportunity of breakfast, "sure, we'll eat at the Airport."

Didn't happen. Airport was jammed, schools are out and everyone and their dog was trying to leave the country. Ended up in the 'Closing Flights' queue and a scamper in the wrong direction to the gate had Mike wondering about my navigation skills.

'Breakfast' was a coffee and Twix on the flight. "Sure, we'll eat when we get there."

Bristol airport - hire car collection, busy, lost time, not time for food. Couple of wrong turns on the way to Reading meant our time was getting trimmed around the edges.

We ended up in some small village doing a Challenge Anneka (Google it!) to get toilet roll, water, fruit, food, insect repellent, and probably forgot something too.

We arrived at Wasing Estate at what looked like a music festival. We even had a nice storm to announce our arrival.

Stopping at the Mizuno VIP area (yeah baby yeah!) we got a nice bundle of Mizuno goodies, poncho (with a brilliant cameraless photo op of Mike doing a 'pooh' face whilst squatting in the poncho) singlet, shorts, socks. We'd gotten our brand new Mizuno #Hayate during the week and Noel got his Friday so good to go in brand new, unbroken in shoes for 24hours! (Number 2 moment).

The boys have arrived at @MizunoRunningUK @run24uk Meet Thunder, Lightning & Downpour! #Endure24 pic.twitter.com/AprdPfALcL
— Amphibian King West (@amphkingwest) June 28, 2014

Car parked, tent up in 2 seconds flat, gear scattered, me changed into my gear, timing chip on and standing on the start line within 40 mins of arriving and with a dazed look on my face, wondering what the hell am I doing here!

The Event:
Awesome!

Not much more to say.

8k loop, run around it and pass the band to your teammate, they run around and so on and so on.
We had a classic race strategy, the Leggit Strategy of Team Relay. When all else fails just leg it!

Plan (on empty still remember, no time for eating properly!) was I'd run the first lap let Noel off and Mike and I could chat about a plan which over the next lap would be recounted to Noel. Thanks how it went. We settled on doing 2 laps each which would bring us to mid afternoon, then do a double lap each which meant the resting runner had the guts of 2 -2.5 hours to sleep / rest before being up again.

When I finished my double I got a thingy of Swedish meatballs and pasta down my neck. I actually only wanted protein, mind said 'pasta', but head said 'no pasta' (tiredness was kicking in ;) ) Nothing to do with the catering but the pasta felt gack & I just craved protein, so that was that.

By the time the guys came in with storming double runs it was 11:40pm and we'd 120km run between us. Time for a little celebration -

Not really proper hydration but you gotta mark 12 hours of team #AKWest running @run24uk somehow! @noel_mccarthy pic.twitter.com/rh4yvBkLMo
— Amphibian King West (@amphkingwest) June 28, 2014

Plan from here was to go on solo runs, easy, and hand over at the tent rather than hanging out at the line. It was allowed and worked for us. I ran into Sunday and handed over to Noel and instructed Mike to wake me when he came in after Noel, kinda due in around 2:30am.

I stirred at 3:30am, saw Noel at my feet, no sign of Mike and thougth "Ah poor bugger's still out there..." as I fell back asleep.

Same again at 4:00am and Noel stirred also telling me Mike was asleep in the car. I was terribly put out that he didn't wake me, and indignantly dozed off again.

A short while later Noel and I went in search of food. The guys had kinda agreed that we'd a fair chunk done with 144k = 48k each and as none of us had really trained it was a great accomplishment. I was fully in agreement until a bacon butty and sugary tea set me off on another lap.

I intended it as a warmdown, thank you lap to all the marshals and to take photos. However, the two lads welcomed me back at the tent with "You know that's 95 miles now, don't you?"

B^st@#ds!!!!

So there was a second, slower, warmdown lap with more gratitude to the volunteers and we had 100miles!! The best part was returning to the pitch to see the two boys had packed up all the gear, but the hillarity started with packing the tent.

More bacon butties, more tea (I'd traded my chip in for a medal at this stage) and we were all set to welcome the last of the runners home.

Ok everyone two more tweets from us tonight. 1: make sure you sleep with this under your pillow: you earned it! pic.twitter.com/PK1fmkjUbI
— Endure24 (@run24uk) June 29, 2014

Fantastic support. Fantastic organisation. Fantastic participants.

Homeward bound:
It's amazing the effect tiredness has on the body and this was one of the things we were exploring so we could recognise the effects in each other.

At one stage, like an excited child, I announced my joy at one of my best ever 8k laps 1hr 11 mins. It was my slowest. Ever. But my brain had reversed everything. So it was my best. Go figure.

Dropped back the car, played some 'Spot the Career' at the airport whilst waiting to board, which was a really funny game until I 'walked' to the board and was identified as a rentboy. :/

Flight home was uneventful. I'll let Mike tell the story of the bar & gel fuelled fart, but my sides are still sore from the laughing.

Amazing experience, thanks to everyone for the support. Edel for supporting me through the journey.

Would I do it again in 2015?

HELL YEAH!! :D

A quick update

The summer is taking shape.

With The Beast of Ballyhoura taking centre stage in August I have along with my wife Edel and Beast teammate Micheal signed up for Endure 24 which takes place over 27 - 29th June and involves 24 hours of running laps on a trail in England .


Micheal and I are using this as a (serious) training event. We expect it to be hard, to test us and also to see how we cope under 24 hours of strain before we head into the 40 hours of The Beast.



Following the Endure24 I have been invited to take part in #RacetoKinvara2 with +Saucony this is in July.

Race To Kinvara from Saucony on Vimeo.

The Beast in August.

And then in October Edel & I are heading to +TCS Amsterdam Marathon where we both have our own targets in mind.

All in all it is going to be a busy running summer! :)

For now though, some light, but necessary reading.

I wanted momentum

I said last week I wanted to "keep the momentum going for a while". Well by definition:

The momentum of an object will never change if it is left alone. If the 'm' value and the 'v' value remain the same, the momentum value will be constant.

By increasing mass or velocity you can increase the momentum. I want to decrease the mass (body weight) and conserve the momentum so I have to increase the velocity (quanity of training) proportionally.

So

Tuesday 22nd April
Little light recovery run after helping with putting the kids to bed.

Run: 7.53km, HRAvg 143bpm, PaceAvg 05:41/km

I messed up my morning on Thursday and missed an opportunity to do a session before work. I drove to Limerick & back as I had mixed up where I was working. I'm blaming sleep deprivation :(

Friday 25th April
Out on the bike. Still missing my Polar CS600x head unit so not getting to do any work to power at all. Out on one of my favourite race preparation courses. I hit the main N6 between Oranmore & Loughrea, a rolling route with a few drags and always a bit of wind!

I hit Loughrea and took off out the link road which is a Club TT route that we use. Of course just as I got into rhythm I could hear the phone ringing in my pocket. It was an expected & important call so I got to mid point and called back.

From here I spinned back home with a nice tailwind :D

TT Bike: 75.31km, HRAvg 152bpm, SpeedAvg 28.8km/h

Saturday 26th April
Very similar to last week I had my #Zero25k run group in Oranmore to take out so time for a little 'Runmute'. Was up early so got porridge and coffee into me all set with a fantastic morning for a run.

Lap 1: 50.09 / 9.81km / HRAvg 151bpm
Lap 2 - 10: is the Zero25k sessions
Lap 12: 52.37 / 9.59km / HRAvg 152bpm

Arriving back home in time for work.

Run: 23.82km, HRAvg 148bpm, PaceAvg 05:36/km

Sunday 27th April
Early morning text has me out towards Claregalway to meet up with Paul. Delighted to say I found my bike computer so the Power was back on! Plan was time in the saddle but Gibbo had other plans. As mentioned in Training logs elsewhere, his easy and everyone else's easy are two entirely different things.

It was a great morning, just the right side of chilly with plenty of sunshine and hills.

TT Bike: 92.9km, HRAvg 142bpm, SpeedAvg 26.8km/h, PowerAvg 197

Good week all told. Even squeezed my first swim of the year in during a wetsuit demo. It'll be grand :)

35km run total, 185km bike total for the week.

We have momentum!

Endure 24 - Stepping Stones to the Beast

It's amazing how easily you can be lead astray once an idea is introduced! :)

Through the middle part of last year when I was really enjoying my running I toyed with the idea of running longer and longer. Something really appealed to my sense of adventure, running late at night / early in the morning with a headlamp is something I really love doing.

Some of my best headclearing runs were done, just me, headlamp and pouring rain.

Rain I can do without but the peace and silence of the night appeals to me.

This year I'm undertaking a team challenge The Beast of Ballyhoura in August. The toughest thing I've ever thought about doing and with no idea really how to train for it (you know what you gotta do for a triathlon, so you do it) I've flying by the seat of my pants at the moments.

I had never heard of Endure 24, however when you are invited to take part in  a team by one of your suppliers the interest & temptation level goes up. Here's the low down:

 

How does Run24 work?

 

You can enter the race as a solo runner, two runners (pairs), team 5 (3,4 or 5 runners) or team 8 ( 6,7 or 8 runners).

 

Solo runners  

 

Start with the main race at 12.00pm, they then carry on running as many laps as they can for 24 hours. They may have support i.e. a helper to feed them on course or stop for rests and food when they wish.

 

Pairs & Teams

 

Start with the main race at 12.00pm, they then carry on running as many laps as they can for 24 hours, each member of the team must complete at least one lap. You cannot substitute runners or use runners not registered in your team.

 

Laps & Breaks

 

You can take a break anytime you like but always leave/enter the course at the correct point. You can carry on and do more than one lap or handover to your partner or team member.

 

Night Running

 

The course is not lit but is marked with glow-sticks. It is compulsory for runners to wear head torches or carry a hand torch from 8.00pm, ideally both.

 

Feed Stations

 

There are feed stations at the exchage point and at half way. Solo runners will also have an area next to the course where they can leave their own food and drink.

 

Results

 

All runners have a time chip and each lap is recorded as you pass the exchange point (a real time screen will update the positions in each catergory so that you can check your progress).

 

Runners can set out on a final lap as long as they reach exchange before 12.00pm and this lap will count towards the final result.

Image from the Endure24.co.uk website

Having been invited, sure it'd be rude not to go and it's one way that myself and Mrs. AKW can get away for a weekend. I hope she'll like the surprise ;)

Watch this space.

That's more like it.

Lalalala, long weekend!!

Bit of time off over the long weekend meant I got stuck into a relatively solid bit of training. It had been a poor week as the roll over from the events of the previous Saturday night (daughter in A&E), van breaking down etc etc disrupted the entire family.

Cut to the chase and get back on track.

Friday 18th April

Was going out on the bike early but settled for a turbo as I could be at home in case I was needed. Stuck 'The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug" on the laptop and spun my Roveagh to Limerick GPX route. Just solid staedy state stuff hovering around threshold effort.

Turbo: 56.2km, HRAvg 146bpm, Duration 02:26

Saturday 19th April
Had my #Zero25k run group in Oranmore to take out so time for a little 'Runmute'. Fantastic morning for a run so with a little light toast, nutella & banana (coffee too!!) I was off out the door.

Lap 1 51.12 / 9.56km / HRAvg 148bpm
Lap 2 - 12 is the Zero25k sessions
Lap 13 53.29 / 9.49km / HRAvg 150bpm

Arriving back home time for breakfast proper, took a gel just before the run back, and then prep for work.

Run: 23.03km, HRAvg 146bpm, PaceAvg 05:49/km

Sunday 20th April

I went out early to lay out the Easter Egg hunt for the kids in Kilcornan Woods. After all the storms there is a huge amount of damage in there with a lot of trees down over each other. It made for a magical glade of discovery for the little ones who really enjoyed themselves.



After that it was out on the MTB for a quick loop to ensure all was in order. It was.
I also managed to map the planned 5k loop for The School Run in June.

MTB: 10.26km

Monday 21st April
MTB and run planned. Do a bit on the bike and run off the bike, back on & off a few times.

Body quite sore after the previous days efforts but to be honest I think digging the vegetable garden was the biggest culprit!

I got out nice and early, the woods were fantastic, just me, the trees and nature. As the trails are twisty, technical trails I was never expecting much other than time in the saddle and that's what I got.

Total:  20.98km, HRAvg 129bpm, Duration 02:13 Here's the file.

Then it was back to double digging and cleaning the vegetable garden for 2 hours in the afternoon! Cross training :)

Now I just need to keep the momentum going for the next while.