[Training Diary] The curse of exuberance...

W/C May 25th

Solid start to the week last week. First week training after the #Coast2Coast adventures with +Edel O'Reilly-Conroy.

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!!

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.

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.

Rollin', rollin', rolling...

Laid out my plan, I did.

Goal is 40-50k running and 200k cycling for the next 3 weeks and then work from there. Shock the system back into action, kick this ass into gear burn off some excess kg's and crack on.

Monday 7th April
Treadmill running, nice and steady planned but just to alleviate the drone I threw in a km with a little bit of pace.

Funny now but not at the time.

Not much pace mind you but enought to have me thinking: "Man 4:45 per km and your struggling for 1k!!" The annoying thing sbout using the phone for music is the constant bleat and whistle of Twitter, Facebook and email alerts (Note to self - Airplane Mode in future). Anyway one of the emails was a response to an enquiry to a CMod from earlier in the day which needed an immediate action from me. Hence the step off for a moment.

Run: 8.01km, HRAvg 136bpm, Pace Avg 05:49

Tuesday 8th April
One of my usual favourite runs in the woods. Two loops reversing for the second loop. Wearing the Hoka Bondi trail / road shoe & my quads are thrashed!! These will take a bit of getting used to, or maybe my runs are just not long enough yet.

Night time run so had the place to myself pretty much and it was lovely.

Run: 12.06km, HRAvg 157bpm, Pace Avg 05:30

Wednesday 9th April
Turbo time with Tacx.

Using one of the preprogrammed workouts with rolling hills I went for a little over an hour, steady and solid. Missing my bike computer head at the moment so no power info to refer to.

HRM kinda mirrored the gradient too.

Turbo: 33km, HRAvg 141bpm

Good start, now to keep going for the rest of the week. Long day Thursday as in Limerick and late night shopping on Friday so plan to keep the run / bike / run / bike going through to the weekend.

As always comments or suggestions welcome.

Unleash the Beast!

So 2014 started for me with no clear cut race to target and this is probably the reason for the slump and lack of drive to train. Previously I'd targetted a 70.3 or similar race in the previous autumn, a year ahead, well at least this is how I approached the Ironman Galway 70.3 and I'd work other races in along the way.

For this year, slow start but a road map is forming.

Lough Cutra Triathlon - The Gauntlet is on my radar. I haven't been swimming but that doesn't usually make a difference to me. In fact my best swim was at The Humbert Challenge in 2013 and I'd stopped all training 6 weeks beforehand! By May25th I'll be well able for the 90k bike and 21k run and if nothign else it's a 6 hour training event.

After that a weeklong family trip is planned for June and then it's the 5 week countdown to The Beast of Ballyhoura.

I'm part of a boards.ie team and while I've no regrets, I do wonder why I'm so quick to put my hand up for things like this. The Beast of Ballyhoura is a 40hour long adventure race.

Not one of those offroad multisport type of races generally referred to as 'messing', but a real guts or glory adventure race when you are expected to be ready for 40 hours and 300km of:

• 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.


• Swimming - teams will be required to cross rivers. We are looking at the possibility of a short swim for all team members, this won’t be any more than 150 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

Training wise, where I stand now, the goal for the next 3 weeks is solid base work and miles in the legs of minimum 150km running (road & trail mix) 600km of cycling (likely mix of road & turbo for now).

Follow my training using the tags 'Beast of Ballyhoura' or 'Training Diary'

Are you along with me for the journey?