Going Coast to Coast in Ireland

Time for me to step up to the plate and register for some other races in 2015.

My wife has expressed interest in Adventure Racing so after a bit of discussion and looking around we settled on taking on the Non-Stop Coast to Coast Challenge from Co. Sligo to Co. Down in May for our own bit of team building exercise:

16 – 17 MAY 2015 – ENNISCRONE, Co SLIGO – NEWCASTLE, Co DOWNNON – STOP & 2 DAY MULTISPORT RACE ACROSS IRELANDIreland, an island steeped in history and mythology with scenery which rivals that of any other sights around the globe. For many years visitors have flown or sailed to Irish shores to take in these sights and to go home with great memories of this fantastic island. For one week in May many travelling will have their sights set on a truly iconic event – the 26 Extreme Coast to Coast Multisport Race Across Ireland.
Traversing Ireland in a west to east format the route of the 26 Extreme Coast to Coast will pass through unspoilt rural locations, through quaint villages and along one of the most famous waterways in Ireland – The Shannon – Erne Waterway. Whether you choose to race the NON-STOP version or the TWO DAY version you will follow a route which winds its way along 316km of the best cycling, paddling and running terrain Ireland has to offer. Competitors will be truly astounded at the scenery and challenge laid down before them in this fantastic event.

We’re entered to do the Non-Stop version.

Ireland – Coast to Coast – Saturday 16th to Sunday 17th May 2015
Course Option: Non-Stop
Team Type: Pair
Class: Mixed
Club: Team #TriHarder ARTeam Type Name: Gotta Run
Team Member 1: Sean Conroy
Team Member 2: Edel Conroy

Apart from enjoying the experience and completing the main goal for us is to see how we get on together working as a different kind of team, without the kids around!! 

As most Adventure Racers will know there is a dynamic to the team and how it works together before and during a race. It is this dynamic that I think will be different because we are a couple and life partners too. I’m really looking forward to this as it opens a whole lot of new doors for us. What else could be better than finding out that both of you love Adventure Racing?!

Imagine a whole new world opening up for holiday destinations!! 

I've laid out my training diary and goals for each week, I'll post shortly with those. Be sure to follow Team #TriHarderAR as the entire team continues to work on core training fitness towards this years bug goal race.

–

See you out there!

Sean

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.