Recovery Run

Not pushing it too hard today - 28 miles at recovery pace to let the muscles repair. Weather is still great - loving it.

The Mournes

Today was a mammoth ride - 100 miles into the heart of the Mourne mountains, the highest peaks in Northern Ireland (you can see the peaks just in the background of the picture). Also the weather was beautiful, a scorching day in the mid twenties which is highly unusual for this wee part of the world.

Anyway onto the ride itself, fairly routine on the way to Newcastle but as you can imagine it started getting tastier when the climbing began. I coped fairly well despite the heat and didn't have any real problems. I tried to keep a steady pace and my usual rythm when climbing which served me well. The scenery was absolutely stunning - I advise if you ever visit Northern Ireland to either hike or cycle in this area, you will not be disappointed. One thing that bothered me though was that I wanted to see Silent Valley, to my surprise no cyclists were allowed it - disgraceful! I had cycled up to 50 miles at this point so you can imagine my dismay at being turned away at the barrier - silly really.

Anyway the run home followed the same route towards Ballynahinch, it was at this point that a bit of fatigue started to set in and I began to feel the temperature. When I arrived in Belfast I had no water left so was also quite dehydrated. Overall it was a great run and thoroughly enjoyable - it's great being off work on days such as this where you can get out and do these things.

Club run

So the day club run was today. Still feeling a tiny bit sluggish but persevered on. Made a decent average of 17 and half mph and hit some records on strava also. 

The sun is shining in Belfast which always makes the weather a lot more pleasant. I'm thinking about a rest day tomorrow in order to get my legs fresh for the coming week. 

I'm trying to complete the strava distance challenge though that follows the tour. It's something like 31 miles a day for 33 days, not tremendously hard by any means but it means I have to keep my mileage pretty consistent with little rest days in between. Anyway will see how I feel in be morning. Let the sun shine on, happy cycling to you. 

Sluggish

Feeling a little sluggish after yesterdays climbing - to be expected really. Regardless I managed 28 mile to Ballynihinch and a fairly easy pace. Hopefully feeling a little more sprightly for tomorrows Phoenix club run.

Triban 3 Pic overload

Paying homage to my workhorse

Divis x 2

So today cleared up and was actually quite warm and pleasant. I'm doing a challenge on strava called rafa rising which is a climbing challenge. It works out 3000ft a day for eight days so I thought I might as well get some good training in before hand. The challenge starts after next week and coincides with the climbing during the tour. 

Anyway this involved scaling our highest peak, divis twice. The actual run was fine enough with not a great deal to report. A few pr's on Strava but nothing extra ordinary. I've never done the climb back to back but do have plenty of experience climbing and handled it fairly well. Of course doing today for eight days in a row may provide some issues but so far so good- we will see. 

This is my other bike by the way, usually reserved for wet weather and general commuting. It puts in the majority of my miles and if your looking a first road bike/ winter hack/ solid commuter I would thoroughly thoroughly recommend it. I do love this wee red machine. Very cheap from Decathlon. 

Happy cycling folks! :)

Rain

Woke up this morning with this as my view out the window and the sound of rain tip tapping on the roof, certainly therapeutic when your in bed staring out at the world but no good for drive chains and dry underwear. The weatherman says it supposed to clear up closer to midday so will wait it out and see. Hope the sun is shinning wherever you are!

Recovery Run and country lanes

Well we all need a rest day, to keep the legs ticking over I hit the recovery run. Not as fast as normal, 16.5avg but still cruising along rightly in parts. I always keep an eye on my heart rate and try to keep it in around 110 so I know i'm not over exerting myself. Can't blast it everyday or i'd just burn out and get no where fast. These are important!

Divis Descent

Here's the top section descent from today, the climb is on my page as well

Divis Climbing today

Well it was a grey day in Belfast today - we get quite a lot of those :) Also quite windy and rainy as well but I persevered and did the climb up to Divis, wasn't going for any records just a good solid climb. On an aside I really feel that my cycling has come on a lot in recent months - purely down to the amount of miles that I've been putting in. It does feel good when the effort pays off but there is a saying - 'it never gets easier, you only get faster'. I can't recall who came up with that one but it's most certainly correct! Cheerio

Lambeg to Ladydixon video

Well here as promised. Its a segment of my run today. I was averaging 23mph through here and was really gunning for it. Granted it isn't terribly exciting - maybe I should add some music or something in the future but was my first quick upload. Anyway this is what most of the scenery looks like around here - green green green - I suppose i'm lucky to have all this on my doorstep!

Hello is this thing on?

So I managed to hook my video camera up to the front bars of my bike. I captured some training footage of my run today so will run through it possibly edit and figure out if any of it is worthy of uploading to here. I figure it's another element to view so could be interesting, stay tuned.

Sunday Blast

I had a really good speed session today. It was the relatively flat Belfast to Ballinderry route. It was quite windy on the way out but held a respectable 16mph but on way back it felt like I was flying - managed to pull avg up to over 18mph. A few KOM's on strava to boot which always makes for a nice feeling. Incidently here is my Strava route if anyone is interested - you can find my profile here as well. Now an easy Sunday with the theatre, dinner and TDF coming up, result!

Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/63727792

Phoenix

So this is my cycling club, phoenix cc. Today's run was quite hilly, 3000ft climbed in all out towards Dromora with 50 odd mile covered. Had to make a break from the rest at half way point to make work. Proper time trailing it home! Made it by the skin of my teeth!

Ballinderry Run Out

This would be my typical flat run training route. Starting from Dunmurry area then turning at Ballinderry. It's about a 25 mile round trip. It's good when the wind is on your back, not so much fun when pedalling against you! It was against me today....Nevertheless here's a pic and a closer look at my bike -Specialized Allez Elite.

Casual Divis climb

A very foggy climb up to Divis today. It had been bad weather all day so was just more than happy to squeeze the hour or so it takes to climb and descend. Lucky to have it on our doorstep in belfast. 1600ft.

Rain go away

Today is one of the first days in a while where I've been forced to sit in the house and watch the rain beating against the window. I'm like a little anxious school kid yearning to get out there on my bike! Come on clouds clear away so I can rampage up Divis mountain. 

Your probably thinking man up and just get out there and do it. Ill ride in the wet like the rest of them but just not in the mood today to START out in the wet. Well see, for now I'm sipping my coffee...

Coffee!!

I do make a mean cup of coffee, well I need that energy boost!

First Post

I thought i'd create this blog to keep my cycling thoughts and ramblings in some sort of written form. If not for someone else to look at least i'll have some sort of record of how my travels/training is going.