Monday, March 31

My weekend in brief

Was not so good for training.

I was working down in Cork. So Cycled into the train station and went to work, finished up late enough and had dinner in a nice Indian...i had a few beers...like 4. Then went to bed in my nice hotel that the sports council paid for. Hour went forward, damn it less sleep.

Next day, went home on the train, in the fantastic weather! Cycled home from town nice and slow because ....it was sunny! For the first time in ages! So we decided to go to Ballinastoe. Me, Waggers, and Ronan. It was an easy day, Ronans first time on a MTB and first time on a trail. It was funny, but he did well! SO quite an easy day on the legs, but fun none the less.

Didn't do much today, was in the lab and was late up, quite tired from the weekend of nothing! Have to go dehydrate tomorrow morning, going to have a nice cycle in, then a quick pool session after! Have some testing tomorrow....then getting a look at a new XC full sus frame from one of the lads i'm testing :) sshhhhhhhh its another Rocky Mountain! Sweet!

On another note, i think i broke my Psylos (MTB forks). This makes me angry!

Friday, March 28

Why am i not in Manchester

Arrhghghghgh i want to be at the track champs!!!

Stupid college :P

Grrrrrrr

Went mountain biking last night, did the same trail as sunday.....over 40 mins faster. Felt good.

Had a bit of a fall, close to hurting my leg a little...as in breaking it. All good!

Wednesday, March 26

Inspiration

Man I've had a few hours of thinking in my head over the last day. Mostly it has been to do with the summer of pain that I'm about to bring on myself!

So a couple of things have happened over the past few day's to make me think about things. One thing is a job, sure i have my ISC job, but i will need another one. Two was about where im going to live. Three was about what exactly i was going to do after the big day.

So most nearly all have been solved.

One: I have a job with Irish Tag Rugby more or less sorted. Starting in May i will be a ref co-ordinator...no idea what that is, but it sounds good :) Wages and so on to be worked out this week!

Two: Had a chat with the old man, he knows i'm up and outa here when i can afford it and when i sort out the masters/job

Three: OK. Long and short of it. Track is a big one this summer, but i also want to go back to my reason for cycling. Mountains. I've been looking at a few BIG races and i've picked out a nice few MTB marathons and a nice 7 day Trans-Wales race. All still in planning stages. But it think they are go nam.

Also I've decided i'm going to do Xterra UK this year. Its a little ahead of plan, but i reckon i'm good for it.

on another note : http://youtube.com/watch?v=h1h-4WRhpGg

Possibly one of the most inspirational video's ive seen on youtube. Not a tri film, but just gets me going! I want to go to Dakar, i may not race there, but i want to go see it.

Tuesday, March 25

OK 20 days without posting is a bit crap

Yeah i've been lazy ok! Jebus!

Well lots has happened. Brief summary below, then i can get back to a more regular posting schedule.

  1. DCU won the cycling varsities. We won it by lots. Had a bad aul day in the RR but the TT went well. In the end of the day it just went to prove i'm not a roadie
  2. Training has been pretty consistent, allot of time on the bike, a good bit on my feet, but still not much in the pool. I just can't get past the fact that burning out from cycling has affected my opinion to pool training, i can do it, but it sucks!
  3. However i did a wee race pace effort in the pool the other day. Swimming 400's in 8mins. At a pace i can hold for pretty much 1,200m without blowing it up. So technically i could be looking at a 35min time, so well within my 45min time that i reckon
  4. Running pace is going well, doing 10km's at a well comfortable IM shuffle in 45 mins. Happy, means i'm within my target!
  5. Cycling is great, feeling strong and fast. TT bike is all together and ready for some long spins over the coming weeks, just need to get out now!
  6. Mountain biking, god i missed it. Went out again on Sunday. Great great feeling to be back on the bike. Man i missed it, looking at some races in the next few weeks and a few BIG challenges.... stay tuned!
I've booked some flights to the UK again, some to go to the track and some to go to Tri's :) its all good. Looking forward to spending some time there again, and with me off to Holland in a few weeks, getting my track legs back in action.

Looking for a long week on the bike this week, and first major brick session :/ lets see how it goes!

PS i shaved my legs....

Tuesday, March 4

Recovery weeks are great?

Man i haven't had a propper recovery week in ages.

Still training, just taking lots of short sessions. Today however was a day off. In college, did some stuff, then came home, cooked, opened a bottle of wine, and watched Spaced

Nice.

Oh...i'm going to Holland

Sunday, March 2

Weekends are great!

What a weekend.

Saturday was deemed to be a rest day. So spent the day working on my bikes after a bit of a lie in until 9am! Madness, i was up at 7 but forced myself back to bed :) Fixed up my road bike and fixie. Then i took down my tri frame and started to go to work on her. I don't like riding the tri bike during the winter in case i damage it, or get it overused. But for the Ironman i want to get used to doing long distances on her so i'll be riding it allot more over the coming months.

Put it back together and stuck the Polar power meter on it for the season. Had to manufacture a new mount for it, but sure that just added to the fun. Simple enough job with cable ties and an old paddle shaft, similar to the design i used last season. Just refined. Went to the cinema with a few people to relax, saw National Treasure, its pretty good, predictable but fun. Great to just do nothing for an evening. Refused to do any college, or club work for the evening!

Today i got up at 7, wandered down, made some breakfast and left the house for 8. Met up with the lads from the club and wandered towards the TT course for the varsities. I wanted a nice long warm-up and then a flying lap. It was windy but not as bad as the last day, got a 13 mins ish on the course. Didn't pace to well, i will know this for the race, its always tempting to push hard at the start, then you just die. I reckon i can get it down by 30 /40 seconds. Fucked up one corner by scrubbing off way too much speed, and i need to sort the front shifter, other than that all is good!

Chilled out with Wags and Ronan for a while after the session, then spun home. Feasted on food for a while, but was pretty sensible about it too. Did a load of work for college club, finishing the order for the club kit and did some varsities stuff too. Bit more to do for the varsities then i have an easy run tonight, another 5km, should take 25mins or so.

Back to work!