Even More Training...

Its the first dry weekend that Ciaran is with me ( and not away skiing in the Alps or camping in the Highlands) so we have a cycling weekend planned. A run with Fiona into Irvine today and a trek around Whitelees for the boys tomorrow. Well that was the plan. It snowed again on Wednesday, pretty much all day. It was thawing but more snow on Thursday night/friday seems to have made Whitelees not an option. Still we had today.
Although it was a nice looking morning it was cold, especially with the moist breeze. Of course, that normally would be an excuse for going fast. We could see the amount of snow on Arran and at the windfarm over by Dalry and figured that Whitelees would be worse.
We ended up being out jut over 90 minutes for the 13 mile run, but that was over fairly flat terrain.
Back to the house for soup, crusty bed and hot tea (coffee and hot chocolate for the others)

There is now only about 8 weeks til the Maggies event and active fundraising has to begin. I will have to print out the sponsor form and start harassing the badminton crowd! Being older, they won't like using the online sponsor form at http://www.justgiving.com/tuvnel-maggies-team-2010
(subtle hint for those who I cannot physically accost)

Training Continues

Out for another bike run this morning (its saturday so morning is anything before 1400). The numbers are getting lesser and lesser - today there were only two of us. We decided on a short sharp run as both of us have plans for this evening.
It was a glorious day up on the moor. Its still a bit wet from the winter, but since its built on bog I don't really expect it to ever properly dry out. Winds were low and coming from the north east (as opposed to our normal south westerly prevailing wind, but NE wind is cold and dry while SW wind is warm and wet)

Of course, I forgot to bring my map with me, but I felt we could manage. Off we set but within a few minutes we had a route problem. I felt we should have gone left instead of right. Colin had a map, we checked and turned back only to find that the left led down to a single turbine with no route out. We were right all along. So we retraced our steps and continued on our way.
For some reason all the gates were open today which made it much easier - going over the cattle grids at high (ish) speed is better than having to navigate the spring loaded pedestrian gates.
It was quite busy also, i guess the dry warm (for this time of year and location) weather brought everyone out.
At the end of the day we did 8.25 miles in 53 minutes. This is an average of just over 9 miles an hour. Its an improvement on last week (but not over the same course) but as we spent more time on the tracks rather then the spine road I'm happy to count it as an improvement.
I'm still not confident on the rough surface. Some of the rocks are quite big! I know you are supposed to just bounce over them but I can't help but keep close rein on my brakes keeping my speed down. This then compromises me on the next climb. Live and learn I suppose.

Maggies Lunch

Since the Maggies Monster Bike and Walk is a fund raising event the team decided to hold a fund raising lunch. Team members would bring in items for lunch and the rest of the staff would support us by showing up and buying lunch and raffle tickets.
Stretching myself to my limits, I made a chocolate and vanilla marble cake which I was very proud of.

 

There was a great spread of food - soups, cold meats, green salads, pasta salads, rice salads, curry, chilli, sausage rolls, pakora,  crisps, crunchy veg, salsa, dips, cakes and a chocolate fountain.

A great afternoon was held by all.

And we raised over £300, so we're that much closer to our target.

Dermot 1 - Whitelees 1

Out today on the bikes for training session 2. Maggies (the 30 mile bike ride and up to 50 mile walk, but I only plan to do 8, Bronze) is coming up soon and my quick runs up to Irvine with Fiona or Ciaran are not providing me with the off road, hill climbing in mud that seems to be required.
Whitelees is the preferred training ground. The new windfarm boasts over 90km of track which closely approximates what we should find at the maggies event.

 

The first time I was out was before Christmas (middle of November actually). It was a miserable wet windy (windfarm, D'oh) saturday and the rest cried off.  The routes are nicely organised with maps and each mast numbered and signposted. I headed into the red section down by the lakes and did about 10k and felt pretty good about it.

This morning was a bit nicer. The ice of the past few weeks had finally gone and the temperature was above zero. It was dry, but threatening but the wind wasn't that bad. Of course being a  windfarm, there was still quite a breeze. There were only three of us going out, me, John and his son and we decided on a simple run down the spine road to 33 and then explore up in the blue "Drum Duff" estate.

Off we headed at a reasonable pace. We would get enough speed up to try let momentum drag us up the hills. So far so good. Then we came to the junction for mast 33. John said to turn left at the bottom of the hill, but that there was a climb so try and keep speed up. So I did, but hten noticed that there was standing water and deep mud through the junction. Had we been continuing straight I may have risked it but seeing as we were turning I felt it was safer to slow doand and take the corner in one piece. Of course I now had no momentum for the hill. And that hurt. By the time I had caught up with the others I was seeing down a dark tunnel. Once we moved on again and took the next bit of the climb I was completely wasted. Luckily they waited for me at mast 48 and I did make it there without getting off the bike, but it was a close thing.

John then took pity on me and suggested that we head back the way we came. I didn't put up too much of an argument.

So I see it as 1 all. Granted I had been at the gym friday night, and excuse I used liberally today. John reckons that today was equal to the middle 10k of the event. The first 10k would be harder and the last 10k easy on canal tow path. Still I got an eye opener.

Roll on next week and see what happens