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Thursday 31 July 2014

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.

Tuesday 29 July 2014

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 :)

Friday 18 July 2014

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.


Thursday 17 July 2014

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 :)

Sunday 6 July 2014

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!!

Tuesday 1 July 2014

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).


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 -

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.

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