Smokin' Joe - Ride Fit

This past winter, out of necessity, I became good friends with my turbo trainer.

I've found it hard to get time firstly, to get out on the bike and second, the one day you have a chance it's miserable and just not enjoyable out in the West of Ireland winter.

Searching around and asking pals advice there was a mixture of box sets, movies, Sufferfest, Spinervals, Carmichael Training videos and all sorts of things to do on the turbo to while away time. Initially I found it hard enough to simply motivate myself to get on the darn thing but with a little bit of focus and planning of training sessions it started to come together and I started to 'enjoy' a bike session.

Recently I made contact with a company www.ride-fit.com about their training films.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="395"] Ride Fit[/caption]

On first impressions they look good, plenty of information on how to push yourself, good guide on gearing, cadence, effort and turbo settings.

Have a look at the sample video here:



 

I've ordered Smokin' Joe and the plan is to download the file and do a decent workout on Monday evening.

Stay tuned for updates. 

 

 

Training ICE

On a somber note we often hear of athletes injured or killed by being struck by vehicles whilst out training. A couple of years ago when I started triathlon training in earnest, almost half of my sessions were done without club mates (restrictions of work, family etc.) and now most of my sessions are lone efforts.

At the back of my mind is "what happens if I'm unlucky to be in an accident?"

Most of us go running or cycling with the minimum amount of gear possible, usually a GPS watch, iPod and possibly a reflective vest, spare parts for the bike and so on. You are unlikely to run without the phone, but then there is a growing trend for people to use training apps to map routes and pace. Something I've advised people to do for a long time is to use an ICE contact in their phone (good to have in any event).

ICE is In Case of Emergency.

So just edit the name of the person that should be called if you happen to be in an accident by inserting 'ICE' in front of their name. It is good manners to leave the first name in an ICE contact so the caller knows how to address you.  So don't do: 'ICE Hubbie', 'ICE Wifey' etc.

For different reasons don't do 'ICE Mum' either better off that its a brother / sister or father who tells your mum face to face that you have been in an accident, than her getting a phone call, if I did that to my mum, she'd kill me!

A second option which I use all the time, as I only carry the phone on the bike, is a Road ID wrist band

RoadID is a series of different products but the basic and by far the best for anyone running, cycling, swimming, climbing is the Wrist ID. Put it on, leave it on.

Its $20 that could save your life.

Update - 30th April 2013

Just to let you know there are coupons available for little discounts on RoadID. A quick search on Google will turn up a few. At the end of the day whether you pay $20 or $19 for the wrist ID matters little, its the potential life saving aspect that is Priceless. Some good comments on the LinkedIn Triathlete group if any one is a member there.

UPDATE June 2013 - We have agreed a referral system with Road ID. Simply Click on any of the RodID images above and you can buy your RoadID directly from the manufacturers. ALL Commission from your purchases is passed onto Croi Charity in Galway.

LOOK Polar Power !

It's been a while.


I've been busy with work, family and getting fitter since I last updated this. Part of my getting fitter plan has been to train smarter and make proper use of the tools that are available to me.

HIM - Day: The Storming of Ladies Beach

Pre-dawn on Sunday 4th September, the alarm toils like the watchman's bell.


Looking out. A sky that hints of promise, a sky full of threat. What will the day bring? All I know is there'll be 2000 fellow athletes and peers on the prom in Salthill within the next short while, full of eager anticipation.

Looking back - Sunday Sessions

Different spin on the Entendre

A couple of Sunday sessions have been missed due to one thing or another with busy Mondays & Tuesdays.


Sunday morning has been and remains my favourite training session. During the week its usually frantic trying to squeeze in sessions between childminders, work, house work, organising races etc. Sunday's are easy days, up early and out for a long easy spin or run 3 - 4 hours and still be back in time for lunch and playtime with the family or work if necessary.

I stumbled on a Brick (11th August)

Its been a busy week and I want to finish my training strongly ahead of racing the Caroline Kearney memorial triathlon in Mullingar on Saturday.

IM 70.3 Cycle route

Last Monday being a Bank Holiday  the opportunity to get out for a long spin was ripe for the picking. Having travelled back from the Sligo Sprint Triathlon on Sunday evening meant that I had time to get organised and try and round up a possee for a spin.

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!
 

Another lake spin / swim / spin, this time with sunshine!

Friday afternoon (3rd June) again saw me keen to get out for an open water swim in Loughrea. I had been tempted by Renville a couple of evenings on the way home, but just didn't seem to make time for it.

Anyway this time crunched triathlete is enjoying the doubling up of training sessions where possible so a cycle out and back was on the cards.

Thursday (2nd June) on the bike

First time in a while both of us managed to get out for a spin together, in fact we haven't got to do any training together for quite a while so it was a bit like getting out on a date again.

Sunday Run / Spin / Run

Sunday morning found me awake good & early so I did a little bit of work on some blog items that were catching up on me. I knew that my plans were to go on a spin with the club from Craughwell at 9.30 but I was feeling up for a run as well either before or afterwards.

Maybe not such a great idea after all

On Friday, having missed a longish spin on Thursday I aimed to get the TT bike out to firstly cycle into the shop but then to actually get out in the afternoon and do a little rectification of my lacking leg power.

I wanted to practise some intervals I'd been reading about that promised to "build serious power in your pins" the idea is to work in intervals 10-20 seconds on of really stomping through the pedals to fire up the big muscle fibres and then recovering over 2-5 minutes or whatever is necessary to recharge the legs.

Lough Corrib Challenge

Sunday 22nd May saw me up early to get to Dangan for registration on the CROI Lough Corrib challenge. A 100+ km cycle around Lough Corrib in Galway to raise funds for CROI Galway.

Sleep has been a thing of the past as we are trying to 'train' our two kids to sleep in their own beds and not in mum & dad's. Friday night was especially bad with plenty of broken sleep and lying awake with elbows, knees & feet poking in the ribs.


Up at 6 and down for the coffee and breakfast. I had spent time on Saturday evening checking over my bike for condition & tweaking. I even cleaned and polished it! All the while listening to the wind and rain howl through the gaps in the window frames. Bit of craic on Twitter with @ravishinrick & @conorgrif re soft boys and turning the spin into a giant turbo session in the sports hall.

Kissed the family and off I went with plenty of time to find the place and get set up. Lots of Predator Tri guys and girls arrived in the carpark and we all got organised to go. Weather was fine, blustery would be a word to describe it. Some showers but nothing that would soak you through. Hard to plan the layers for such a spin, if you don't have it with you, tough!

We all set off (Predator Group) just after 8.30 and heading into the wind rode with the Lough to our right. We had a decent size of a group riding in parallel taking turns to ride up and over for a spell on the front.

Somewhere around Moycullen two of us popped off the front for a pitstop at the side of the road. I hadn't quite managed to learn how to deal with the On the fly pitstop so stopping was the only option. The group rolled on and we were happy enough to catch up over the next while.

Somewhere  around Rosscahill I got stuck behind a jeep and horsebox which was stuttering along dangerously jumping lines of cyclists and then cutting back in on them. In fairness some of the cycling was pretty poor with people thinking the rules of the road don't apply to a peloton. Well I can tell you if a bus was coming the other way there would have been carnage on several occasions.

I fell away from the other guys and ended up coming out along the lake into a headwind by myself. There was a lot of hard work with strong gusts but I was feeling good and happy to push along where traffic allowed. It was a little bit of 'surge and ease' as vehicles played dodge the cyclist and on any other day I would have been glad of the power intervals.

I eventually got to the top of the lake and made the turn at Maam Cross and realised there was a bugger of a climb ahead and the wind still coming in from the 10 o'clock position. I still felt good, but knew there'd be a payback for doing this on my own. I'm only 40k into a planned 120k trip, so still a long way to go, but at least that wind would come behind on the homeward stretch (I hope!)

Following what was a tough uphill drag came a fun downhill stretch where I cranked the bike hard into the wind and took the corners on the fly. The gusts made it a little nervy but I was glad of the respite and floated off the saddle as much as possible for the 3k descent. At the bottom I caught up with the group for a couple of pics, a quick breather (for me) and a chance to grab some protein / energy bars and a drink to top up the fuel tanks. I had topped up along the way but was glad to get off and stretch the legs.

All too quick we were back on the bike, moving again, this time back in the group so it felt much better as we headed across to Cong for the lunch stop. There were a couple of sharp little climbs and drags as we cruised back along the side of the lake. Even though we were with the wind behind us we were sheltered with the hills and had no direct benefit. I was feeling it in the legs, I was definitely dropping off on the climbs, I could keep a steady state but the power was sapped and i would slip back. Once on the flat / roll I could catch up again to the group, I just didn't have the extra 'oomph' to push through the gear on the drags.

At Cong we broke for about 20 mins, coffee, carrot cake, fruit & water all taken on board. Again off we set, someone had a great idea and dragged the group out on a high intensity sprint. Good luck with that! I stayed with it for a while but I was shot and I let them off as there was still 40 odd km before getting back and I had no idea of the lay of the land.

After that I held a nice steady pace for myself, the road in from Headford to the city is very scenic and after Cloonboo it is amazingly straight. The wind still seemed to be coming in from the side so there was still work to be done to get home. Eventually I got back to the carpark and enjoyed the relief of getting out of the saddle and stretching my back, hamstrings, arms, shoulders, glutes . . .