Monday (6th June) mini-epic cycle

I've lapsed a little in the past week with keeping this up to date. So bear with me as I return to my usual regular updates.


On the bank holiday Monday myself and Conor had planned to go for a decent length spin through the Burren. From the conversation the night before I was told to "get hills into it and steep ones" into my route planning. When the said route was viewed and approved the comment "looks good" got me worried that I had more bitten off than I could possibly chew.





We made our arrangements for the following morning to meet at 9.30 at the shop and head from there. Bike checked, spares sorted and nutrition organised for the bike pouches.


Monday greeted us with a dirty, drizzly day where you couldn't be sure how wet you were likely to get. The decision was made to leave the rain wear at the shop in the hope it wouldn't be necessary (wishful thinking!)


The first section from Oranmore to Kinvara was especially difficult as passing the Londis in Kilcolgan the smell of breakfast pulled at us like sirens to a sailor. With great reluctance we moved on. All it would have taken was a moment of weakness from either of us and it would have turned into a sausage, bacon & eggs fest!

First wee break

The road to Kinvara was wet, it was miserable but the company was good as we were able to chat away about all sorts of things. What goes on Tour, stays on Tour, so no secrets being shared here!

As we left Kinvara on the road to Ballyvaughan we had made the decision to do some climbs on this spin, so climbing we did. Turning off at Leagh North (from km 27) we basically spent the next 20k going up with a few respites of downhill to ease the legs out. There was plenty of rain to assist the misery and at this stage I think we were both soaked to the bone. I was glad of my Wicklow Tri gilet which helped keep the chill off my core.

Its closed :-(

There were a couple of road signs teasing us along with the promise of "fresh coffee and scones 2km ahead". Every 2km there was another sign promising "2km ahead". Needless to say we got to Carran with no coffee or scones and a closed pub which could have done business on a couple of Irish coffee's with scones! Its a spot to have on the map for the next session out which could turn into a session!

We checked our location and set sights on finding Boston figuring that we could get loads of hits on Twitter by mentioning Boston. 
 

Its around here somewhere

Despite checking the local map and our own maps we somehow missed the turn off along the way and went looking for the coffee shop in the Burren perfumerie. We found the perfumerie but decided that the entrance road was not worth risking tyres on, especially as its a fair distance home from where we were.

The roads through the Burren were not much better that those that stopped us getting to the coffee shop, plenty of grass in the middle and gravel in the verges to keep you on your toes during the downhill sections.

We wound our way back to Kinvara and stopped of for a quick coffee and bun in the garage before motoring back to the shop ready for home & lunch.

What I discovered later was a stupid mistake in starting my Garmin 305 (which I have been using for the pretty mapping) left me with only the homeward leg of the trip being tracked. I had the Polar RS800cx on for HRM and other data.

Conor had his Garmin 310xt on so hopefully he has the complete route mapped out. When I update my diary I'll transfer my own data across, in summary:

Training Time 3:25
Heart Rate Max 174 (96%) Min 87(48%) Average 131 (72&)
2043kcal
Total 520m of climbing

Thanks to Conor for updating the results map. I didn't realise that we did 3 Cat 5 climbs during that spin. I remember the big downhill though, I enjoyed that!