Happy Festive Eating Day

MMmmm food.

I like food. In order to consume more foodage i went for a spin this morning on the CX bike with Frank. Nice little spin, very very easy spin, out along the coast and up over Howth. Fantastic weather. Frosty, but enough sun to go out without gloves! Madness. Only did about 15km or so but it was nice.

Went home and cooked the Christmas dinner. MMM food. Just sitting down watching telly and having a few beers. Going to head for a quick run in the morning, make some breaky, pack my stuff then after meeting Wag's head off to Cavan for a bit of an aul party and some foodage. Then up in Donegal for the next week until New Years day!

I'll post when i get back, or when i get a chance before then. Who knows the wastes of Donegal may have interweb. Planning to get some good training in, then get my plan for the year sorted, pick out my races...ohh and do some paddling too!

Cross-tastic weekend

Finally got my Cyclocross bike fully built this weekend. After a shitty week. Ankle was still borked all week. Needed to do some final work on my lit survey. Got it finished on Wed afternoon. Took Thursday off completely. Basically played games on my PC all day. I know i could have exercised blah blah blah, but i was not in the mood at all. Friday was a quick check on the lit survey and the starting of the bike manufacturing.

It is a thing of beauty. Light, fast, and nippy. Nice.

Went out for a quick spin on Saturday in St Anne's. Did a quick shake down on the bike, fast slow fast. Then started to do a few laps on the course that shall become a cyclocross race in Feburary. But more on that later. The bike is class! Out for an hour half, nice easy spin with a bit of speed work. Spent the time working out where to run the race to get the best course possible. Then Kerbdog! Best gig of the season. As per normal an amazing performance, great music, great crowd. Pretty much played both of their albums bar a song or two. Great. Pity about the lack of a decent drinking spot after. Everywhere was packed!

Sunday was a different story. After finally persuading Mike and Waggers to go mountain biking (they were whining about it being cold, pfth, just a bit of frost/ice) we racked the bikes and headed to Ballinistoe Forest. Gave Mike my mountain bike and took the CX bike on the trails. So that made for a fun day. I had brakes of a sort... but no suspension and loads of speed to manage to try to keep up with the lads! Great day was had by all, but i need to get my brakes sorted. We were out for 2hrs 30mins. Good spin, quite tired after, combined with the gig last night i have sore everywhere. Especially with the beating i took with the lack of suspension. i could have gone slower.....but where's the fun in that. Nice work out. 2,000 odd Kcal and a fair amount of work on the legs. Lowest gear was 42x26 so the climbs we painful for sections at a time. But no pain no gain!

Meeting Mum for dinner tomorrow, then going to try for a short run on some soft soft grass, maybe some swimming if not. Then it is feasting day!

Stupid ankle

Well i did hurt my ankle, it was sore on Friday last when i went for a spin, so even though i was in Manchester i decided not to go to the track. I was wrecked anyway and just felt like chilling out and doing my Christmas shopping/coffee drinking.

However in the name if chilling out, we went skiing! Man i haven't ski'd in so long. I was nervous as hell, forgot most of what i used to know, and once again i felt like a beginner. The place we went to was cool, no pun intended. Indoor ski slope about 180m long and at about 45 degrees, so it looked scarier than it actually was. First question we were asked 'Can you ski? No really can you ski?'

Uh yeah....didn't mention that it had been 2 years since i had ski'd but sure, it wasn't totally a lie. Ski's we had were good, nice floaty ski's easy to turn, but he boots didn't fit me right, need to go smaller next time. Excuses excuses, the fact is that i forgot most of my skills. Even though the first 30 min's sucked, the last 30 min's of the session were class, the middle were ok. Need to go back again, but at £22 a session, i think it'll be one for when i have cash again!



Rest of the weekend was just relaxing, and trying to get warm. It was freezing in the UK, much much colder than at home. Came back on Monday, faffed around yesterday, but took part in a dehydration study for one of the girls in my class. But got two 10km spins in, one easy one interval.

Sitting in a sauna for X amount of time until we had dehydrated by 3% of our body weight. Not the most fun i have ever had, and Grainne decided to call a halt to the experiment when one of the lads started getting nose bleeds 40mins in! Not so good. I did loose 2kg in that time though. Water nothing else. Had a headache till about 8pm last night, the study started at 11:30! Spent the day hydrating and peeing. Watched the new BSG last night (i am a nerd) can't wait for the new season!!

Distracting myself from my lit review at the moment, its due for Friday and i have a little more to do, just not in the mood at all. well the sooner i get this all done the sooner i get too relax for the eating season! Going to go for a light run tonight, on the grass, hopefully the ankle will be fine.

Dang, i have owwies

Stupid ankle, stupid trail running in the dark, stupid me.

Hurt my ankle on the run on Monday, sore when i roll to the outside on it. Ice time.

Oh apparently 4 degrees ain't cold. Thanks Amanda, yes -22 is cold, yes Canada is an icebox, and yes cougars are not your friend's. Sheesh all i have to contend with is drunken scumbags

back to my review of literature.

Which sucks by the way. We got an extension though. This i may advantage take of.

Yoda speaking week this is, yes.

Picking up my cyclo-cross frame tonight!!!

Runity run run run

It's 4 degrees outside. What a nice evening for a run methinks.

And it was. CCCCCcold makes me not stop running. Did a nice little session. 6x(6mins on, 1 min off). Hr had to stay between 140bpm and 170 bpm for the whole session. Active recovery type stuff. First set was a warm up, last was a cool down. Middle 4 at race pace, 1/2 IM race pace anyway.

Nice session, covered 8km. Felt good, but may have tweaked my ankle a bit running on the trail by the rugby pitch in the dark. Doa'h.

Fun anyways!

A long day in the saddle

Yes it was. The weekend looked terrible, rain wind and freezing temperatures were predicted. But we only got the one. Cold.

Left the house at 9.30am, went over to DCU to collect a few people. First few KM were cold, but i was warming up when i got to college. Picked up 4 lads in college and the spin began.

Went out towards Meath, ended up in Rathoath after an hour and a half. traffic out there was mental, people were going to a Sunday market out in Fairyhouse so were mentally driving down the roads. one of the lads nearly got creamed, tbh he wast even looking where he was cycling when he moved out. His own fault. Went out to Dunboyne to get some coffee, then the group split as Louis and Donogh went off towards home and Lexlip as we went on back to DCU.

By the time i had got home i had been 3hrs 45mins in the saddle and 4hrs 30mins from my front door and back. I did a total of 75km in the day, and at a nice easy average HR of 136bpm. Felt good during the evening. A little tired but not too bad, threw the compression tights on anyway, just to be safe, and had a nice evening watching films. Looking forward to a good week now!

'It's cycling Greg, not science'

Or so said one of the lads over dinner the other day. How very very wrong they are.

Its been a good week training. Very good. Felt quite motivated all week.

Met with Sharon the Nutritionalist on Monday evening. Did a bit of work on my nutrition and worked on a few new things. Took the day off training to relax from the weekend.

Did two swims on Tuesday, in and out to college, the wind was unbelievable. Took the road bike in so i wouldn't destroy my legs. Wed was a nice weights session, got back into the gym and did some new exercises i haven't done in years. Lunges make my ass hurt. DOMS for the two days afterwards. Stuck the compression gear on straight after the session to see how they help! It feels weird to say the least, its very very tight. Odd to get on but not warm when its on. Strange. Kept it on for a few hours to see if it helps with the DOMS. Deffo didn't feel as bad as i have before but it will take a few sessions to check if it helps. Went out with the lads from the cycling club for a christmas dinner. Wagamama's. Tasty.

Thursday was a little sore after the session in the gym so decided to hit the pool. Took a while to warm up but once i got going felt good in the pool. Just did some work on my technique and a few slow-mo 50's. Felt great after, nice and loose. But by the time i got home was getting tight again. Friday was a boring boring day working on my presentation for my FYP proposal. But by 5pm i'd had enough so decided for some coffee, and then a run! Went out in the freezing wind and ran a nice fast 5km. Took about 19mins, but i felt great! No major pains in the legs, breathing was great, knee was fine. And i could have pushed much much harder. WOW maybe this compression gear is worth something!

Didn't try the gear on the run itself, just using it for recovery at the moment. Threw the gear on after the run again just see if it helps more. Legs weren't sore much today. Which is odd. Normally i get 2-3 days of BAD DOMS. But pretty good today after day and a half! Planning a swim in the morning before work. If i wake up!

Training go now!

So yeah back to training proper now.

Thanks to Pauline for the pics!

Had a good week last week, got a few spins in and a run. Didn't make the pool, had to much actual college work to do. But i should be better this week so i can get back in the pool. Bring it on.

Went over to Manchester on Thursday last week. Nice to get a long break from home and college and to just have a bit of fun and training. Didn't do much on Thurs evening. Friday was great, had a nice aul sleep, did a bit of study, met up with Pauline's mates and had some curry for dinner, then just chilled out for the evening after wandering about town for a bit.

Saturday was a training day, 15km or so spin to the velodrome, 2hours on the track (i nearly died, great session, nice and hard), then a 20km spin home...we may have got lost. Session was good, new coach i'd never trained with. hard session, nice mix between sprint session and an endurance session. Session HR graph thingy below. Nice peak HR of 189 after my 3 way sprint at the end, i wasn't even maxing on it! Felt like i had allot more to give, nice. I enjoyed it. Kate and Brian were there too. Ate more food that evening and wandered to the local outdoors store.


Sunday was a shopping day. DECATHALON!! Best shop ever. So much to buy, thanks Mr. Visa card. The ferries we cancelled so had a panikey hour or two trying to get incontact with Stenna, in the end said 'fuck it, nothing i can do' then went into town to the Christmas market. What can i say, Bratwurst and Beer. Stroopwaffles and Gluhwien. Nice. Much food was consumed as was a few beverages. Slept like a Greg shaped log. 5.30 alarm, rang Stenna, boats are go now! Drove to Hollyhead straight away and got the boat home. Then the Burgerking on the HSS went on fire. Nice. So crazy mad panicked staff moment on the PA, lock-down to my seat, then a period of floating about the harbor, then its ok, and we came home.

Bought me some compression gear in Decathlon, going to go for a weights session and a run tomorrow, will wear the gear on the run to see if it helps after the weights session in the morning. Time to get beasted!

Another weekend MTB

Good weekend again!

Friday went out for a nice fast spin on my local trails in Howth. Did the lower cliff path, to the summit, then down the middle path, and back to the Martello tower in Sutton via the lower path again. Had a minor incident with some gorse, but its all good! Came home and made a cottage pie that was fit for the Gods themselves! Ate large amounts and had a beer or two.

Relaxed the evening, then Pauline came over from Manchester for the weekend. Hung out in town on Saturday with Ide, Una, Pauline and JJ. Did some shopping, ate food, and drank coffee. Nice.

Then Sunday came, and a dry cold day it was. Perfect for mountain biking. Had been chatting to a few mates the night before about the new trail in Ballinsloe Forrest in Wicklow. One of only two dedicated maintained trails in the country, and not officially open! So we went! Me, Pauline and Jeff. Took about an hour to get there, then 3 hrs of riding some of the best trails outside Wales and Canada! Fantastic, well set up, little hard to navigate due to the lack of way markers, but savage all the same. Not to difficult, one section is a bit tricky, but the rest is fast and flowy. Love to get back this weekend, but i'm off to the track to do some training!

Planning a good weeks training:

• Monday: off to recovery from the weekend!
• Tuesday: 2x10km spins, tempo pace. Light run 3o mins
• Wednesday: 2x10km spins, tempo pace. Swim session 1hr, split 50's technique.
• Thursday: 30 mins run, light. 1hr swim, distance, slow and steady.
  
• Friday: off
• Saturday: 2hrs hard session on track
• Sunday: 2hrs easy session on track

Thats the plan anyway! Lets see what happens!

D.O.M.S

I still have owwies from the race on Sunday.

Hip flexor's were cramping at work last night! Might have something to do with standing in the freezing cold at a rugby club for 3 hours....

Back on the turbo tonight to loosen out me thinks

Race's are good

I have been very very busy in the last 2 weeks. I had two exams each worth substantial amounts towards my final year score so i was focusing on them. College is getting in the way of training! But i don't mind to much. I only have on semester of lectures then i can get to working on my FYP.

I got my proposal and ethics in for my project :

'A Comparative study of two cycling ergometers on the energy demands of Irish male club level cyclists aged 18-30'.

I've received ethical approval so i can go about starting to recruit people for the study. But before that i have to finish my Lit Survey and a few other submissions for other modules. So i probably won't get rolling on the actual lab work until January, but I'm going to try and get my test runs done before then!

I've been training a bit but not much. Dropped 2kg in the last 3 weeks, which is a start, but im thinking that it may not be fat, more muscles :/ going to hit the gym again this week and try to get back into some sort of rhythm with my weights training.

I had to skip the triathlon training day with Rich Brady cause i just had to much work on, and i hadnt got more than 6hr sleep a night for 2 weeks. Man i had a great sleep on Saturday 11pm - 11am! Nice.

Got up early on Sunday and went down to Wicklow to race in the Off Road Duathlon being organized By Naas Wheelworx Tri Club. Great event, but felt so slow on the run, carrying way to much weight, the legs were willing but the body was heavy. Having serious D.O.M.S from all the downhill running on the course on the slippery slide mud covered grass. Man I've missed trail running! Only wished my trail shoes weren't in Manchester.....

Course was 2.5km run/12km bike/ 2.5km run all off road. I was two lazy to build up the XC bike so rode it on the trail bike (Santa Cruz Bullet). worst idea ever. 8 inch of travel, great for trails, sucks for racing, but sure i didn't mind!

I placed 26 out of 50 or so riders, ahead of most of the adventure racers which was nice! But got beat by Will Byrne...damn roadies and their cyclo-cross bikes! Great race though. Looking forward to the next one in December.

Going to do an hour on the turbo later to let the legs recover. It's lashing outside and i don't feel like getting wet.

Topo-Duo playtastic weekend

For the love of god why didn't the club get a Duo earlier. Best boat ever.

Myself and Ronan took the club Topo-Duo on a rampaging trip on the Liffey, our only goal being to do every weir wrong, and at some point act like idiots. In this we succeeded. Pretty much ran everything the stupidest way we could, Boxes on Lucan were interesting with us ending up going over the high wall by mistake. Standing up and switching places in the boat resulted in a swim (first of many). Playing in the River right hole in Wrens was fantastic, back surfing the boat, front surfing, and nearly getting a full spin in. Only got about 3/4 of the spin until we got stuck in the hole. And then we swam....well i swam and then Ronan joined me in the penguin's credo; 'Never swim alone'.

Good trip all in all, nice spin on the river, and a bit of alternative training for a while!

Training again!

wOOt!

What a day, hit the road at 10:30am. Spun out to DCU and met up with Mike. EVENTUALLY Sean turned up, and we headed out to the Phoenix Park to get some lap's in on the Intervarsities course. Basically the same as the Dublin City Triathlon course. Met up with Diarmuid, one of the new lads in the club -Junior track team, and we started doing laps.

First lap was nice and slow, just getting a quick spin about the course. Second lap we spun up a bit faster, climb was a little harder. Third lap was at a nice fast pace again. Lat lap was a bit of a wind down, but i couldn't resist jumping off the front on the lads. :) needed to get an effort in!




Nice spin back to the college, then coffee and a wee talk about the Ironman with Mike. Nice 10km spin back to my house after, shower, drink and some foodage.

SO far a good day! 65km under the belt, i think some pizza for dinner, then off to Peters for some social painting (Painting his house + drinking beers)

I've been sick

Yeah its been a bit of a shit week in training.

I went over to Manchester last weekend, brought the bike which now has a home with Pauline over there! had planned to do a session on the track on the Saturday morning, nice madison session to scare the shite out of myself again. Then was going to go watch the racing at Revolution's that night. Chill out on Sunday, then come home.

What happened was i got sick last wed when out on the river, didn't feel to bad until Friday evening, woke up Saturday in a work of shite. Sore throat, headache, dizzy spells the works. So decided not to race around the track at full speed and just relax. Went for a walk to the nearby shops, half hour away, on the way was overheating and feeling crappy. Felt so bad in the shops spinny spinny bad. Went back to the house and watched Top Gear for a few hours, pumped water and Vit C into my system, then ate. Felt ok and went to the track to watch the racing. Great night, so many great sprinters. Had a few beers. MMM cheap Belgian beer.

Got to bed a bit late, still not feeling great the next morning, watched Pauline zip around the track for a while then went back to fluids and food to recoup. Flew home that night.

Still haven't been feeling to well all week, so took it easy. Been working a good bit lately, lots of testing, and combined with college work its been a bit of a bad week for training. Considering i only felt up to getting back on the bike yesterday.

Spin planned for tomorrow, weights and a run on Sunday, spin on the MTB on Monday, and if I'm feeling up to it (not lazy) I'm going to head out for a quick 5km run tonight. See how things go!

This week i have mostly....

Been catching up on training and friends.

Got the cycling club stuff all up and sorted at the start of this week, we had to do a grant application to the college to see what money we can get. Then got myself out on the bike and into the pool. Have done quite a few short sessions this week , then one long session on the bike on Wendsday, 40km, few hills and nice fast flat sections.

Smoothed to 1 min samples

Most of my pool work had just been skills based, 25m on, 25 off. Alternating between different bits. Also it nice to be in the pool again. Its odd , i took 7 years out of training in a pool after Portmarnock swimming club. Now that im gettin back into it, i feel happy in the water, like an old friend....odd i know.

Other than that i have been drinking a little. Nothing to do with college, well not directly anyway, went out for a night with the Canoe, Swim and Cycling club last night. Then today we had a social thing on in the college from the faculty. Free food and free wine for 2 hrs. Savage. I may have got drunk.....

Back to savage training tomorrow, weights session, and a swim session!

I want cake

Simply put. I hate trying to eat properly all the time. I want CAKE!!!!

On another note i finished Halo3. Nice. Now to play it some more.

Training.....erm just back from England...very tired...yes tired...

I did two spins today, 10km each, 30 mins in the pool working on technique, only covered about 600m but most of it was with good form.

Going for a spin with the cycling club tomorrow. Should be a laugh!

Stupid rivers.... :)

No idea how i did it but i strained my calf muscles on my left leg after paddling on the river on Sunday last. Either I'm just not used to sitting in a boat again, or i hit a rock a little harder than i thought. Bottom line is that I've not been doing to well on the walking front. Its ok to cycle places, once i don't try to brake on the fixie with my legs!

So haven't been getting in much training in. Ive been cycling to college again, nice to get out and good to be riding to work. We have had our clubs and socs days this week in college, trying to recruit people for the canoe and cycling club. Numbers seem to be down in most clubs, but we got what we want so no issue!

Heading off to Manchester this weekend, yey! Probably wont post until monday again.

River paddling, I'd forgoton it was fun!

Spent yesterday (sat) relaxing in Andy's house with a few other friends playing Halo 3. one fo those lazy days, eating crap food and drinking fizzy drinks. Didn't get home to bed until 2am.

Woke up today. Made coffee, so tired. So very tired. Arrhghg stupid phone making loud ringing noise's. Waggers on the phone 'barbale barbale abrble Dargle is running barble barble barble half an hours and ill be there' Long story short we ended up driving to Wicklow to go do some rivers.

I had taken a seista from paddling for 6 months. Got back in a boat for the first time last wed, then went to Wicklow to do some paddling. Darlge was low so ended up doing the Annamoe and the Lower Glenmcnass. Nice day, low water but fun none the less.

Back to college tomorrow, week two begin's

DOMS DOMS DOMS

DOMS = delayed onset muscle soreness. Kicks in 48-72 hrs after a big session.

Long story short first session back in the gym in 2 months on Tuesday. Entire session was upperbody based and now my arms and back hurt like hell. Add to that going paddlin yesterday and doing a half endurance/sprint session against the flow and my arms are killing me.

Another weights session planned for today, lower body thankfully. So i reckon by Saturday ill be in bits again.

However Halo3 is out and this will entertain me while i cant move!

11pm:
Ended up not doing a weights session, forgot my gym gear but brought my pool gear! SO did a swim session instead. 4 x100m free, then 2 x 100m legs only, 2 x 100m arms only, 100m free. Then a quick little shower and off to the sauna.

Went out testing for the ICS-ADU tonight, wheelchair basket ball. Interesting, pity that i was testing a team from Lithuania who didn't speak English...

Stupid winter

I think winter arrived this week.

Went for a short run a lunch yesterday, nothing savage just getting the legs moving again! Went to Mikes to pick up keys before going for a paddle, it then proceeded to lash rain for the next 5 hours. To say the least i hid in Mikes and drank coffee, then took a break in the weather to get home before it lashed again. So i didn't go for a paddle.

Have a meeting with my soon to be final year project supervisor today. Planning a weights session before then, need to get back into the habit of doing weights again. Once the college timetable settles down i can work my training in around it and study.

250 days to go

Well i know its a long time but its a good round number to work off.

Took the weekend nice and easy, was at a wedding on Saturday, then out in Kilcock looking at the Irish Open. Nice way to relax for the weekend.

College started back today with a lovely 9am start to double nutrition. Fantastic. Going to go for a run before lunch, nice easy run for 20 mins or so. Then later tonight going to dust off the slalom boat and go out for a session.

What i did on my holidays.

Well i went to France to be short about it.

headed over and went to St Malo for 2 days. Nice old city, fantastic coffee, great food and the weather was cracking! Spent the first day wandering about the old town and then went off for food. On the Sunday i took the motorbike and spun out to Mont San Michele for the day. Hadnt been there since i was 8 or 9 so its was nice to get to see it as an adult!

The day after i drove down to meet all of the Irish teams for the European Canoe Polo championships in Thury-Harcourt in the middle of nowhere, somewhere near Caen. While the team did some training on the water i went out on the bike to do some training.

The area around the competition site was very hilly. I'd go out on a 2 hr ride and spend 75% of it climbing and the rest either descending, or on the flats, what of it there was! It made a great training ground with the weather staying fantastic until the day we were due to leave, which was just fine with me.

I only did 4 sessions in the week i was at the competition site. I was just using this as a way to get back into the swing of training. I didn't want to go mental. I just wanted to be able to be social and still get some rides in. Unfortunately I'm still not used to the Power-tap so managed to delete all but one of my sessions which kinda pissed me off when i found out! Note to self, read manual.

Sessions done:
Tuesday - 30km , rolling hills, easy pace, avg power 195W
Wednesday -50km, very hilly, tempo pace, avg power 223W
Thursday - 20km, hilly, very easy pace , avg power ~150W
Friday - 30km, hilly, tempo pace with some over geared sprints, avg power 200w

On the Friday with the sprints i was trying to check my max power for 5 sec during a sprint, still need to do sprint training for the track racing. Managed a 1,203w for 5 seconds, and 1,013 for 10 seconds. Happy enough with that. Give it time and it will get better!


Oh, although it was a training weekend, i was drinking, maybe a bit to much but the plan was always to stop as of the 1st of October so its not to much of an issue! On the way back to the ferry to go to the homeland i went via Omaha beach and the American cemetary. I remember going there when i was a kid and thinking it was boring. Dont think i understood it as a child. It was odd going there having understood what happend over that period . I'm not the biggest fan of America but i felt a little more appreciation for what they did then rather than now.

Ferry on the way home was the usual 17 hours of drinking and Rugby, was so tired i was in bed by 12:30. Then the spin home was more of a challenge to stay awake than anything!

Well better get back to my last day off!

Ferries are so sociable

Just back from France,

Good week of training but i'm quite tired after all the not training :)

Ill post up about it later, but now i need to shower and unpack!

All ready to go.

I'm heading to France tomorrow for two weeks. Did all my final bits of packing today, trundled around the house for most of the day as i was full of cake from the party in Pauline's last night. Cake + Ironman = not a good combination. But sure I'm on holiday!

Heading over on the Motorbike and my friend is bringing over my road bike. Planning to get some training in over the two weeks as well as have a bit of a relax. Hopefully Sean will come out with me for a few sessions. If not I have the MP3 player. Should be a nice start to the training season and I'm hoping that the weather will be better than it was in Ireland over the summer.

Going to head to St.Malo first, then over to Thury-Harcourt (near Caen) to watch the European Canoe Polo champs. Base myself out of here to do some cycling and a bit of running.

Planning a BIG shopping spree in Decathalon!

I'll try to post when away

Can't....not....train...

Argrgrghghgh. I had enough of not training. Needed to go for a spin. So with the excuse of doing a shakedown on the bike before i go to France i went for a spin over my local hill, Howth.

Went out for 35mins, just pushing but not to hard. Average HR of 178 bpm, average power of 204 watts. Nice short spin only 16km But pretty much all uphill for the first half, then down sweet down on the way back.

Got this lovely pretty graph too. Hell if i know what most of it dose. But i'll figure the new program out eventually.

Work finaly finished

It's taken me a while, mostly cause im a lazy git, but I finished my INTRA report. Basicly a report on what i did during my work placement for college. In the end it turned out like one of those essays you got in the first week back in primary school when the teachers havent quite got into the grove of 'I hate my job but i have to do it' and are still in the 'I hate you bastards' stage. You know those essays 'What i did on my holidays' and so on.

Well heading to France on Friday. Going to do a bit of touring on the motorbike an then take a week training at the European Canoe Polo champs. Friend is bringing my bike and some other gear over for me so going to take it as a nice week to get back into training. Planning to get about 10 sessions in over the first week, then take a few days off after....wine and cheese.

I'll post up my idea for the training when i figure it out today

Time off....

Its odd. I've decided to take 2 weeks off my training as of then end of the race season for me. Mostly just to relax, but also to recover a bit seeing as how I've finished work and am going back to college in a few weeks.

This has been so much harder than i thought it was. I've been itching to train but have had to make sure I'm just relaxing and not thinking about training and racing is hard!

Few more days off before i start training again in France for a week. Then we will see if the time off has helped. Maybe I'll be more psyched to get back on the bike after the time off.....and I get to play with my new Powertap!

Taking the Plunge

Well today was the day.

I've entered Ironman Switzerland 70.3.

https://secure.datasport.com/confirmation.cfm?PayID=78Z.KY1YJ.DX

That's my receipt. Now i have to do it.

I decided a while ago after reading a book about a guys Ironman adventure, Not Normal Behaviour -Stuart Staples, that this was for me. However due to going into my final year in college and trying to juggle a winter track season in the UK i decided not to decide to do a full Ironman straight away.

However I'm thinking about IM Uk next August....

The plan with this blog is to cover what I get up to over the next few months, days and hours. I'm going to generally post my training here and anything else that i can think about.

Enjoy.