2011 Irish MTB Marathon National Championships

It was 12 months since I was in Ballyhoura where I successfully defended my MTB Marathon National Title – this year it was a slightly different (better) course that covered much of the trail center style trails as well as a few new additions.

The course had several fireroad climbs as well as some technical climbs and trail center style climbs but the major feature was the kilometers of flowing fast singletrack. The trail center has been completed for several years now but recent changes have made some of the trails a lot nicer to ride – more flow and some jumps. The other really nice thing about the race was that it was 100% off road – at no point did we touch tarmac or a public road. We used fireroads (and some single-track) for the climbing and all the descents were technical and fast.

The race started with a 3.5 kilometer fireroad climb before entering the first of many singletrack sections. We started pretty fast with some less experienced riders sprinting off like the race was a kilometer long – about two minutes later their legs blew, Niall Davis (recently crowned single-speed World Champion – ran in the same venue), Ray O'Shaughnessy and I created the lead group. We rode together for most of the first half of the race with each of us leading our group at various times. About 20 kilometers in I unfortunately punctured my rear wheel – I rode carefully until I got to the fireroad and fixed it before starting the chase. About midway through the race I caught and passed Ray while I caught Niall a little later.

Picture from here

When we hit the penultimate long climb, I increased my pace and Niall dropped off. The rest of the day was plain sailing as I rode pretty hard on the climbs and took my time to enjoy the singletrack descents which with the pouring rain where turning extremely slippy. After just over 3 hours I finished the 65 kilometer race and retained my National title by 16 minutes over 2nd place. 21Kmph for a 100% off-road race in the rain, I was happy with that.

A few people I would like to thank – firstly Cycleways/Specialized (and the mechanics!) and Shane Connaughton for sorting me (and Mel) out with the best MTB bike out there – the Specialized S-Works Epic – I have been riding those bikes a for a few years now and every time I get back onto it I feel like I'm cheating versus everyone else (seriously, go out and try one)! Having spent so little time on the mountain bike this year, it really did allow me to get away with minor mistakes on the technical terrain. ZipVit for covering all Mel and my nutritional needs during the season both on and off-road and my buddy Alan for driving down and back and supporting me during the day – many thanks!

National Champion

The venue is perfect for MTB racing, especially marathon racing and the club that ran the event (their first event), ran it to a world class standard (as good as anything I have raced on the continent). Ireland will host the 2014 MTB Marathon European Championships in the area and this was a great dry (errr, wet) run for the event. Thanks guys.

Results are up here. I'll add in other reports when they go up.

2011 Lakeland Warrier 100km MTB Marathon

It was Sunday morning – so the final day of our three day, three race, three discipline weekend. Today it was the Lakeland Warrior 100km MTB Marathon.

I had not raced an MTB Marathon since I won the National Championships last September, indeed, I had not spent more that 2.5 hours on an MTB since then but I did look forward to the race - I really love racing MTB marathons - my major problem with XC racing is that it is continually becoming shorter and shorter races around shorter and shorter tracks - not my style... not real mountain biking. Unlike most Irish off-road marathons, this one was not going to be 50% filled with slow technical riding, it was basically all fireroads and gravel roads. It may not have had much singletrack, but it was still tricky navigating around loose rocky corners at 50kmph!

We arrived at the race venue with typical Irish summers weather – sun, rain, wind, cloud... all in equal portions but for random durations making kit choice difficult (I wore a base layer, two jerseys and a gilet). At 100km (and I was guessing around 4 hrs) – I didn't want to push the pace at the start and was happy to follow others for the first while. After about 15 kilometers, there was 4 of us in the front group and we rode a good steady tempo as a group. At the midway point, the organizers had setup the feed station at a stunning viewpoint over Lower Lough Erne – the sun was out, the wind still and you could see the rolling hills around the lake for miles. I took my time at the transition to really take in the view and wished I took my camera with me.

We continued riding as a group until we had raced 65km when I turned on the pressure on a gravelly climb – I got a gap and simply rode tempo to the finish taking it easy on some of the mud iced farm lanes. I won in 4 hours, with an average speed for 25.4kmph – 101.8km, 1,800m of climb.

The race was a great event, different from most other Irish marathons – the race was tough in that it was long and there was seldom a flat section of road. Thanks to the organizers, 26extreme, for putting on the race – both Mel and I got a lot from it.

2010 Irish National Marathon Championships

The final goal of the year before some well deserved rest and relaxation (and a chance for my various scars to get the energy they need to heal up properly) had arrived. After not being run in 2009, 2010 marked the return of the Irish National Marathon Championships. I won this title in 2008 and was very much motivated to retain the title.

MBCC (Mountain Biking Club Cork) where the club responsible for running the event – they were holding it in Ireland's largest trail center – Ballyhoura, but they promised much more than trail center riding – and in that, they delivered.

My leadup to the race was good – after our wedding, I rode a few big weeks and then tapered off for the championship itself. The week before, I took part in the Leinster Road Race Championships, motivated to win but had one of the worst sets of legs of the year for the first hour – the decisive hour. After an easy week, it takes a hard session to get my legs going for racing fast and with the Hill Climb Race that was supposed to be ran by Swords CC the day before, being cancelled at the last minute – my 'opener' session was gone. However, a massage by Stewart Carr on Monday had my legs feeling good again. Other than the disaster of a road race, things were going to plan and I felt strong.



The course was going to cover around 63km with 1,500m of climb. The course contained long fireroad climbs, long technical climbs, steep descents, ruts of death, forested singletrack and about 70% (I'm guessing) of the purpose built Ballyhoura singletrack. A challenging course and one that I felt suited me well.

Female winner, Cait Elliot

The race started up a 5km fireroad climb – initially I had Evan Ryan and Dave O'Neil for company, but by the top, I had moved off. I rode the climbs at a good tempo, the trail center stuff as fast as I dared and took it really easy on the technical rocky descents. I was in the lead and paranoid about puncturing on the very pointy rocks so I took my time descending. I had a lot in reserve and felt I could drill it on a few of the longs climbs towards the end if needed.


With a little over an hour of racing to go I came to a dead end on a section (the only section I think) that we doubled back on. There were no signs – and I cursed, very loudly, and with much anguish. I had been VERY diligent watching for course marking and felt that the course had been really really well marked. I remembered seeing a sign 1km back that pointed right(ish) but was clearly taped off. I rode back, met Anthony White (fellow KCNC endurance rider) and we rode back to the junction where I stopped as he was sure he was still right. We faffed around some more (I spent 10 minutes up there faffing!) until basically the first 10 riders were together. We decided that the taped off section must be wrong and followed where the arrows pointed. Very shortly afterwards, a moto rider confirmed we were now correct and apologized profusely for not having had the tape removed in time. I was kinda pissed – I had worked hard enough to make sure I had a good lead in case any mechanicals occurred and with 1 hour of racing to go, it was all back to the start. Motivated, I hammered off.


The rest of the race was thankfully uneventful. The course was really nice and the singletrack a lot of fun to ride in the dry. I had been riding down here on my hardtail training bike a few weeks earlier and by the end of the session I could hardly move as my body was that beaten up. Today, on the full suspension Epic – I felt great. It ate up the course, smoothed out the rough sections and allowed me to really enjoy the course. I finished without the obligatory sore back that is usually associated with trail center type riding.

3 hours 20 (or so) after starting, I finished off my 2010 season crossing the finish line to win my second Marathon Championship and my second National Championship of the season. I think I may be the first Elite to claim both a MTB and road national championship in the same year :)

Other than that one glitch which effected the front 10, the race was very well ran, on a really great course – certainly the best marathon course I have raced on in Ireland. The prizes were sponsored by VANS and went down really well :)

Thanks for all the support along the way in the race, before, during and afterwards. And another special thanks to Alan for coming down with me for the weekend and supporting me at the feed zones and lugging my spare wheels around. It is great to be able to concentrate on the cycling and know that everything else is being taken care of. In addition to my ZipVit Recovery drink when I finished, he even had a Coke waiting for me – how PRO is that? :)

Results are up here and I'll add in more photos from the race as I find them.

For those always asking - my nutrition for the 11:30am marathon was:
8:30am
LARGE bowl of oats with raisins, cinnamon, a banana, muesli and soy milk. Some orange juice and a large mug of coffee.
9:30am
ZipVit Energy Bar
11:00am
500ml ZipVit Energy Drink as I warmed up and one ZipVit Gel
During the race:
4 ZipVit Gels (one caffeine, an hour from the finish)
4 x 500ml of ZipVit Energy Drink

2010 Marathon World Championships - St. Wendel

It took a while to get the post up (I have been 'life' busy). But finally a bit of a report from the World Marathon Championships.

I took this video just after the race which says it all.

Basically:

Started at the back of the grid, race was super fast and split early into large groups. I was in a group too far back. After almost an hour of racing I was 4 minutes off the race leaders – but the race was effectively over.

Course was the most boring course (in the dry) I have ridden – I have had much more technical road races. I felt reasonable in the race though. Race organization was great.


Next years Worlds are on in Montebulluna where I raced a few weeks ago - much more interesting. Followed by Ornan where I finished 25th in a Marathon World Cup in 2008. Ornan was a great course.

2010 European Marathon Championships

It has been a year since my last marathon race. Mountain bike marathons tend to be one of the toughest races out there with race times between 4 and 6 hours with little or no respite.

The Garmin 705 was a life saver on this trip

I had heard some good things about the course for the 2010 European Championships (the 2011 World Championships will be held there too). There were 17 categorized climbs and it seemed pretty much all of them were steep. What goes up, must come down and there was a lot of singletrack descending. The descents, in the dry conditions where not technical but riding them at 35+kmph for the first time, the margin for error drops dramatically.

Waiting to start

The race started with 110+ riders on a hot morning in Montebelluna, Italy. From the gun, the start was super fast as we hit the first major climb, and the only tarmac one. At that point the race already started to break up and I found myself in a group a few too many groups back. I was riding the descents very well and was able to bridge groups but after about 35km, the groups settled into what it would be for the day. The middle section of the race had lots of parts where group riding was imperative, a lone effort trying to bridge was doomed. As the kilometers ticked by I started to feel a little better (I suffered all day, but felt physically sick for the first few hours) and over time dropped the rest of my group and started picking off other riders ahead.

Postcard perfect views

After 130 very tough off road kilometers, and 5 hours 40 minutes saddle time I raced over the line for 43rd. The second half of my race went well but I really should have been in the lead group of 30 over the first couple of mountains - something to work on and get right for the World Championships later in the year in Germany.

I took the follow video a couple of minutes after finishing the race.

My friend Alan accompanied me (took the video/pics you see) for the race to provide support - it was vital and everything surrounding the race went like clockwork. Thanks Alan!

Alan also has a few pictures up here.

Oh, and this is what I ate/drank during the race:
25 minutes before the start - 1 ZipVit Caffeine Gel

During the race
6 ZipVit Gels
1 ZipVit Caffeine Gel
7 750ml bottles of ZipVit Energy
2 500ml bottles of water

2009 Marathon World Championships

Every time that I have pulled on the green (and this year, really really green) jersey to represent Ireland it has been something special. In my short cycling career I have not done this many times (yet) but each time it means a lot to me. To top all that, heading to a World Championship, with all the big name riders sporting their countries flags is something to cherish. With all that in mind, Mel and I headed to Graz in Austria for the 2009 Marathon World Championships.

Course Profile

With 3810 meters of climb spread over 104 kilometers of fireroads, single track, river beds, grass and tarmac, the course for the 2009 Marathon World Championships looked to be the toughest race of the year. Upon arriving, two days before the big event, the idea that it was a difficult course was backed up by every competitor we met that had ridden the course. An easy way to grasp the course is it think of it as a very technical XC course stretched in both distance and elevation – everything was to the extreme. Even 2007 Marathon World Champion, Christoph Sauser claimed it to be the most difficult marathon course ever – sweet :)

Mel and I arrived at the race venue Friday afternoon (race was Sunday) hoping to get a little easy riding in to help relax our tired bodies from all the travelling. After building the bikes, we decided to ride the first few kilometers of the course. After a couple of kilometers of gentle tarmac climbing we hit the first obstacle, a 1.5 kilometer road climb that averaged 21% and had stretches at 28%. Not exactly easy riding – with the granny gear in use, we tootled up it. After that, we rode the final 2 kilometers of singletrack back to the start/finish – a really fun section of pointy rocks and slippery roots – a section where good balance and the ability to stay away from using the brakes would be key. It was at this point that I knew my S-Works Epic was the perfect bike for the race – indeed, almost all the top riders, male and female rode full suspension bikes for the race.

A flag for every nation there - I was the only Irish

The following day, a Gondola ride (who wants to climb for an hour the day before a marathon race?) took Melanie, Elisabeth Brandau and myself to the highest point in the course, Schockl-Bergstation. From there it was an hour of fun technical riding back to the start.

Mel preps bottles, I prep bikes

Race morning arrived and my legs felt pretty good. A 15 minute warmup had me down for gridding just in time. Unlike last year (dead last), my grid position was amazing – called up 16th. I knew that I would not be beating my number plate (this year) – but to start from the front, rather than the back was nice – especially going into the steep initial climb. The race started at an easy tempo as we rode over to the base of the steep climb and at that point, everyone switched into top gear. Looking around, you would think you were in a 1 hour cyclocross race, not a 5 hour marathon. My heart rate was sky high and I knew that if I pushed too hard, for too long, I would really pay later in the day so I allowed myself to slip back (mistake?). Soon, we were on virgin trails (to me at least) – with the rain the night before some of the sections turned pretty slick and I was having a great time slipping by riders less accustomed to riding in the wet.

One of the really stressful things about racing abroad for Mel and I, especially marathons, is race/feed support – we have none! Mel and I are privateer racers and all expenses are out of our own pocket – getting to these races costs a lot and the support we get from other racers and their supporters means a huge amount to us. At the worlds, thanks to Andy at SportAmed for taking us under his wing. He (obviously) had to support his own team riders first but even taking the bottles to the various locations was a huge help. Andy was helping us, but, as I say, he had his riders to account for which meant that I was either getting a handup from Andy (thanks!) or he left the bottles at the side of the feed zone for us to stop and grab. Now, in a lot of races, the feed zones are pretty civil affairs – not here – it was a chaotic jungle of screams, shouts and bottles flying. It was really amazing but not exactly conducive to finding a bottle at the side of the feed zone! Anyway, during the race, I missed a few bottles, lost contract with riders while I searched for bottles and had to deal with the stress of trying to sort all this out before the start. I said it last year, I'll say it again – WE NEED SUPPORT AT THESE THINGS. A few minutes difference in my race time was quite a few positions. Just having support would have given me this. Anyway...

More big climbs and more super fun descents were on the cards. I had heard a lot about some extreme descents but I didn't find anything too nuts. Sections of off-camber rooty goodness followed by 500 meter long rock gardens straight down the side of a mountain – great fun.


The long climb up to Schockl seemed to take forever but as the climb went on, I actually felt better and better (maybe it was the Guava TorQ gels?). I passed a lot of riders that looked to be paying for their earlier efforts. At the neutral feed at the top I grabbed a Redbull and started the long steep descent. As with all the riding in the day, I cleared all the descents cleanly but there was many a sketchy moment when the front and rear suspension saved me. In training, I would never hit some of the sections so fast, but when you are in a race, especially wearing your countrie's colours, a little go faster bulb seems to go off in my head and I imagine myself riding a downhill bike with full armour (rather than a 9 kilo wippet bike with me in lycra!).


As I entered the final kilometer of the course, I saw a German jersey, a white Specialized Helmet and another Epic – I had caught Mel. She started 15 minutes after me but had a shorter route. I nipped past her on a bend (I had been passing men on the way down the descent and I wasn't finished yet) and told her to hang on to me. A couple of minutes later I crossed the line happy to be finished with Mel following a few seconds later – it was really nice for us to be both over the line at the same time.



My race time was 5:23 which placed be 64th - a little over half way up the field. I had a pretty good race but have a top 40 as a goal for next year (15 minutes faster would have had me there this year).

Many many thanks to our main sponsors, KCNC, Schwalbe, TorQ, Crankbrothers but especially to Cycleways and Specialized for helping us ride the best bikes available.

Results:
Mens Results
1 Roel Paulissen (Belgium) 4:34:37
2 Alban Lakata (Austria)
3 Christoph Sauser (Switzerland)
4 Christoph Soukup (Austria)
5 Wolfram Kurschat (Germany)
6 Alexey Medvedev (Russian Federation)

23 Oli Beckingsale (Great Britain)
64 Ryan Sherlock (Ireland)
72 Paul Oldham (Great Britain)

2008 UCI Marathon World Cup Round 2 - Ornans, France

For Mel and I, this year was about getting some International race experience – with this in mind, earlier in the season I decided that the final round of the Marathon World Cup series held in Ornans, France was going to be my last race. Flight options didn't look great, so Alan (who kindly put himself forward to help me for the weekend) and I flew to Basel in Switzerland VERY early (getting up at 4am does not agree with me!) on Saturday morning, i.e. the day before. Not really a good way to do things considering an early Sunday start for the long race but with work, what could I do?

When I originally planned to race here I expected it to be a nice warm, dry race for me at the end of the season – boy was I mistaken. The weather was much colder and wetter than Ireland – Dooh!


Ornans was a beautiful town nestled in a valley surrounded with wooded mountains – real postcard stuff with an atmosphere in the town to match.


Unfortunately (and this was mega frustrating) an administrive error in Ireland meant that my UCI points from the National Championships were not added to my UCI profile which effectively placed me in 185th position on the grid to start instead of somewhere in the 30s. I was very annoyed about it all but at the end of a long season, I just had to calm down and get back to business.

Race morning arrived with the car beeping at us telling us to be careful – it was -1 Celsius outside! There was basically a freezing fog in the air! I had not really considered such cold conditions and barely had enough cloths with me to warm up in – I was contemplating wearing a 'going-out' shirt under my jacket. The warm up itself was tough, I didn't have a turbo trainer with me and had to ride out of the town to find an area where I could ride without having to slow down every 10 seconds. I found a hill and started riding, about a minute later my fingers were frozen – I could barely shift gears or use my brakes but I was somehow able to get my heart rate up to the 170s (just) within the warmup. 15 minutes of that and I had enough and went back to the start line...

Alan grabbed my 'extra' clothing (I would wear a Gilet and arm warmers over my kit for the first 1.5 hours) and was called up to my start in 185th position – this sucked. Knowing that I had done everything correctly to be gridded somewhere in the Top 30 but yet have to start all the way back – not nice.

With the countdown reaching zero the gun went off... and nothing happened... damn this gridding. A few seconds later there was movement and my long race had started.

The first few kilometres were a bit of a blur – basically, I was doing everything possible to pass as many people as I could as quickly as I could yet remain safe. I only had one dodgy moment when a rider leaned a little too much into me but in general it was okay. With about 20 minutes of riding done, I started to approach the lead group which was about 30 strong. I had been killing myself as these guys cruised and as I caught on, the fireroad climb we were on deterioted into a wet and slippy double track and everyone sped up.

I did my best to stay with the lead group but I had already been working hard for a while fighting through the traffic and although my heart rate was still low, I felt a bit 'cooked'. The TV quads zoomed in and out between myself and the other riders and that helped pull me along – trying not to look too bad on the bike. Eventually, we made it to the top of the first major climb where Alan fed me at the first feed station (he had a busy day too driving from feed to feed). I grabbed a fresh bottle a headed onto the first big descent.


The race basically went on like that for the first half – I rode in groups of various sizes and mostly made up positions as I went along. At about the half way point, Roland Golderer and I started to ride together. I was on the front a lot of the time in the technical terrain but Roland put in a very strong push over a 6km flat section (about the only fast flat part of the course) towards the end of the course. When it came to the final 8 km hilly loop around the town both of us attacked and kept attacking. The last section of the race was the most enjoyable (and my HR the highest). There was a half dual-track, half single track long climb followed by a technical and fast singletrack descent back to the middle of the town. Fortunately, I was a little stronger than Roland and won the sprint. I covered the 82km, 3200m climb course in 4 hours 52 minutes placing 25th. That, and my other results means I'm currently ranked 42nd in the UCI World Marathon standins :)

Roland Golderer

One of the main things that stood out, was that throughout the race the descents were amazing – most descents were on singletrack and all descents were technical. The climbing was very tough but the descents made up for it – in fact, some of them were so long and tricky that you were hoping for it to end so that you can 'relax' a little and get the feelings back in your arms!

The weekend not only held the final round of the World Cup but also many other Marathon races suitable for everyone from purely recreational riders all the way up to the Pros. 1,000s took part and I highly recommend the trip to any rider.

After all this, I switched my brain into 'off-season' mode and enjoyed the next two days in Switzerland and France with Alan, drinking beer and eating fine food. Many thanks to Alan for coming along – I hope you enjoyed it all as much as I did.

Wicklow Way Record Attempt - Part 3

Having reached the half way point and already covered the most technical and mountainous terrain of the ride, I had thought that the second half of the Wicklow Way would be about the same as the first effort wise. The terrain and riding would be easier but I would be more tired so evening out to be about the same. I started out climbing up Slieve Maan and it seemed like that. Mel had ridden the climb earlier in the year (everything from this point on was new to me) and warned me of a right turn off that is easy to miss. At 67km into the ride I found it which took me to a steep hike a bike climb in the mud. The climb looked like it would be a lot of fun as a descent and I think I'll come back here some day soon but today it was much to wet and muddy to even try. Up up up, filled the next 30 minutes as I made my way to the top of Slieve Maan where Mel was waiting in the car. I briefly stopped and checked the watch – 5 hours in, another 3 ish to go... I remember telling her that I'm starting to get tired.

Slieve Maan

The next while was pretty uneventful, I had to take it pretty easy on the descents to make sure I didn't make any wrong turns and even had to consult a map on a few occasions. The rain was getting worse but it didn't bother me much as I was warm and pretty concentrated on getting around the course.

Descending down some fireroad

At one point I was riding up a tiny road that was more like a mucky fireroad when I hit an unmarked turn. It was basically at a derelict farmyard. I stopped, took out the map and started to figure out where to go. At this point, I heard a rumble behind me to find Mel driving up the road – I couldn't quite believe it. We chatted, took out the colour map and figured that the left was the right choice (I was pretty paranoid throughout about making a mistake).

I left Mel and headed down the hill towards my next turn – a river crossing which was pretty cool and I started out on a long traverse around Garryhoe and Collafunshogue hills. I remember looking at the OS map beforehand and felt that I would be 'bombing' along on this section. If you had to pin point an exact location where this long ride became a real challenge for me, this was it. As part of my training for racing I do a lot of climbing, I like climbing, and in hindsight, I would have much preferred climbing up and down Glendalough 3 more times than the 'flat' course that remained. The thing about it was that the traverse was on a grassy track – the type of thing that during the summer (or I should say, after a long period of dry weather) you would ride along quickly at 20kph. Fun, fast and maybe even flowy. Not today though – the ground was completely saturated and keeping myself moving on the bike was very difficult – I ended up having to walk lots of it. That was what got me down – physically I was pretty tired but okay – just having to walk, in the rain, in the mist on super slompy ground, it started to play with my mind. Anyway, I trudged on and after about 10 gates to jump over and some nice short descents I got back to the road. Unfortunately for me, the road didn't last very long – fortunately for me though Mel was right at the corner before the next off road section pointing me in the correct direction. I remember saying, “this sucks!” as I passed by...

The river crossing :)

If the last section was the part that it started to get really difficult, this next part was the bit that practically broke me... For the next 3 kilometers I was basically riding on a boggy path that a hundred cows had milled over. Again, lots of bike pushing. I mean, it's one thing to push a bike up a hill – but this was pretty flat. It was raining hard, everything was misty, I was tired and walking through a swamp that was going half way up my calves – this really does SUCK. After what seemed an hour I reached the road again – but this time I was a broken man. I don't think I have been in this state before – I was not physically exhausted – but I was mentally 'cooked' – I had had enough and wanted to stop. If I was in a racing situation, mentally it would be very different. You have people to race against, or a known course, or a difficult time to beat. This ride had none of these things to mentally keep me going.

The start of hell...

So why didn't I stop, well, there were a few things that kept me going from this point on.

1. I REALLY don't want to do this again so I better do it now, I have already invested a lot of time.
2. Mel has been a star helping me all day – I can't not finish
3. Both Mel and I took days off work to do this, it's costing me money!
4. I announced on all the forums that I was going to do this – I thought that I would be a wuss if I didn't finish.

With all that in mind, I rode on. Thankfully, much of the final 30 kilometers was on roads and fireroad (although all the fireroads where either muddy or had freshly placed stone that rode like treacle). Apparently, it was supposed to be mostly 'flat'. That it was not, I still remember climbing a lot. After my final meetup with Mel I turned up a road climb that looked like a wall. I have to admit that not only did I drop the gears into the granny ring, I actually contemplated walking! and it was tarmac! I thought better (it would be even more energy walking up it) and continued on the bike.

Me at the last stop - incidently, that Assos ClimaJet jacket is amzing!

With darkness starting to fall, and my brain functions slowing down, the final 20 kilometers were a bit of a blur. It was easier than that final super boggy section but I really had enough of it all and wanted to be done.

Arriving in Clonegal

At 6:39pm - 8 hours, 17 minutes and 19 seconds after I left Marley Park I reached the placard in Clonegal. I broke the previous Wicklow Way by bicycle record by almost 4 hours and was happy to be finished. The weird thing was that I actually wasn't as physically tired as I expected – mostly, I think the difficulty in the final sections was mental. Too many people told me that I would 'bomb' the last section while in reality, my average speed turned out to be almost the same as my speed over all the big mountains earlier in the ride. Mel took a few pictures and I cleaned up a bit – needless to say I was pretty hungry so I had some recovery drink and a bag of Haribo and we headed home with the aim of finding a restaurant on the way. A fine Indian in Tullow called Krish was exactly what I wanted. Never is my life easy as by the time we got back to Dundrum we had to quickly pack as we were off to the London Cycle Show early the next morning.

At the finish

So at the end of all that I think I had the most interesting job of the day – I have to say a HUGE HUGE thank you to Mel for being my support (in every sense) for the day. I'll admit that for the first half I was fine but the final 50 kilometers you really pulled me through (which you probably didn't realise, as afterwards you thought I was fine throughout). It is not nearly as glamorous a job as what I did, (if you can call riding through rain and mud glamorous) but is just as important – thanks :) I know I will have to return the favour at some point.

Stats from my Garmin Edge 305.
Time: 8:17:19
Moving Time: 8:09:46
Distance: 130.2km
Climb: 3900m
Average HR: 149
Max HR: 180

Drink: 4 liters of various flavours of TorQ Energy
Gels: 6 TorQ gels
Bars: 6 TorQ bars, a flap jack, a muesli bar
Calories used: 7709 (taken from Ascent Software)

Lots of records for me.
Longest bike ride time wise, longest off road ride, biggest day of climbing (just about), most calories burned in one day, most TorQ bars eaten in one day and lowest mental point I have had on a bike. Probably more too...

Wicklow Way Record Attempt - Part 2

Leading on from my last post, I started to pedal along the Wicklow Way. I followed the first sign, then followed on along, a little bit more, hey wait – there are no more signs. I had taken a wrong turn – in Marley Park. Not 150 meters into the huge ride and I made a mistake (which I noticed a few minutes later). I returned back to the parking lot, reset everything and at 10:22 I started off on my trip to Clonegal.

The trip through Marley Park went fine the second time along and I started up the Kilmashogue Hill Climb. The climb had been rerouted since my sub 12 minute time trial up it last year, needless to say, I was not going to go very fast up it anyway. It would be the first 300 meters of elevation gain over the whole 4,000 meters and really my warm up. The previous few days of rest meant that my heart rate rose up pretty quickly and I felt pretty good. The extent of the ride that I was hoping to accomplish was still only hitting me, but at this point, I felt pretty good. A nice morning and an epic ride in front of me.

I rode across the side of Two Rock and really tried to dodge the puddles – I really didn't want to get my feet wet and looking back on that, it's kinda funny (more on that later). As I descended down to the road from Johnny Foxes to Cruagh I met Mel standing taking photos – she asked how I was, but 40 minutes into the ride I had no issues. Life was still good :)

This actually is more technical then it looks ;)

I'm the little red dot in the middle of the picture

The pass over Prince Willies was unremarkable – I would usually try to ride as much of the newly laid slab path as possible but as I had a long ride ahead of me which was against the clock, I took the safest and quickest option and just walked the top section. I used to really love that descent but I now find that I'm a bit of a chicken on it since it was 'resurfaced' – hopefully, if I get a non 'whippet' bike I'll ride down it a bit quicker.

Mel on the way to our meeting point at Lough Tay

At the bottom of the descent Mel and I met for our first designated stop. It was simply a quick hello, a new bottle, bar and gel and off I went. The following section was uneventful to the goats track that runs alongside Djouce mountain. The last time I had ridden along it, about a month ago, it was a real joy. Reasonably dry and fast – well, fast enough for a mostly uphill trail. Today, it was wet and soggy – hopefully not a sign of things to come! I ended up having to walk a few sections but got through it okay. I met a few groups of school children hiking along the way who had a great laugh at my “Eat Me” shorts – I don't think they got the whole TorQ Bar side of things. When I hit the boardwalks, the thing that had almost stopped my attempt before it started hit me, the wind. Previously it was just an annoyance – now, riding along the narrow boardwalks, it was pretty dangerous. I took it pretty easy and half way through it, when the boardwalk turned further south the wind moved to being a direct headwind – controlling the bike became a lot easier at that point. At Lough Tay I met Mel for the second time – again, a fresh bottle, another gel, a gel there and then, but no bar this time (I still had one in my pocket). I had covered 34 kilometres, 1350 meters of climb and was only 2 hours 20 minutes into it – the most technical terrain was behind me. I knew all these trails very well so it had not really felt like I left home yet. The next 25 kilometres or so I had ridden twice before, and from there on it would all be new to me.

Lough Tay

After a quick road descent I hit more fireroads and cruised along towards Oldbridge – pretty uneventful really. After Oldbridge and some dual track climbing I hit what was probably my favourite sections of the day. A fast open grassy descent and lots more twisty quick single track that eventually drops you down to Glendalough. A real pleasure to ride and worth the trip in itself. As I arrived in Glendalough, with about 3 hours 30 minutes of riding in my legs I thought that this would have been a great spin to just stop there, have lunch and get a lift home. Not today though, the 30 minute climb out of Glendalough awaited.

Just after a 'field' section

Mel was following me in the car for this road section

I took it pretty steady up the climb and enjoyed my surroundings. This region of the world, really is beautiful and I was so glad to be in the position that I could go out and spend time in it – I really am lucky and so thankful for my health. The trees where changing colour, it was not too cold and it wasn't raining...

Glendalough

Food, glourious food...

As I started on the boardwalk section above Glendalough the wind (and rain!) picked up and it was the first time I put on an extra layer above my base and jersey, a Gilet. The boardwalk and the following grassy section and super technical descent was much tougher than the last time I rode it but I reached the fireroad with no incidents so a fast descent down to our third meeting position was upon me.

I arrived down to Mel in Glenmalure, 4 hours, 20 minutes into the ride still feeling pretty fresh. My legs felt okay (considering), I was eating well and although it was raining a little and windy, I was pretty warm. I had covered around two thirds of the climbing which was on the most technical terrain – a sub 8 hour seemed to be on the cards and I felt good. Again, a bottle, bar, and gel with a quick kiss good luck and I passed the half way point of my task and started the climb up Slieve Mann.

Half way

Moving into the second half of the challenge, and hitting 1,000 words is a good point for me to stop, and leave the next section until another day.

Wicklow Way Record Attempt - Part 1

[This was going to be a pretty long post so I'm posting in three parts]

I had heard about the Wicklow Way long before I got into cycling or properly into outdoor activities. To me, it was basically a super long walking trail that people hiked over 6 to 7 days covering some of Irelands most beautiful terrain, indeed, one of the first outdoor activities Mel and I did together was hiking a 6 hour chunk of the Wicklow Way together.

A couple of years ago when I did get into cycling the idea of doing the whole thing over a day or two was hatched. Upon further research I found out that a quartlet of talented Irish riders (Beth McCluskey, Eoin Keith, Paul Mahon and Peter O'Farrel) held the record at 12 hours and 4 minutes. At this point, my longest ride had been a tiny 2-3 hour ride covering only 30-40km and the idea of covering the complete thing in a single day was astonishing! An idea was there, but it would be a while until I did anything about it.

It was the start of this year when I really started to seriously think about riding it in a 'single serving'. I had been getting pretty good results in marathon type events and liked the idea of attempting a challenge that would really push me physically and mentally. When I'm riding well in a 'short' cross country race, I push myself as far as I can physically and mentally (if I'm not asking myself, why am I doing this?, then I'm not pushing hard enough!) but I felt a super long challenge would push me in different ways. Since the course is so long and demanding, I knew that I would not be able to attempt it during the season as the time to recover would be simply too long – as it was, I took part in races most weekends and felt that I would need longer than a few days to feel fresh again afterwards - so I forgot about it...

On Sunday the 4th of October I completed what was going to be my last race of the season. A Marathon World Cup in France (report coming soon). After that, I went into 'off-season' mode and started to enjoy a few of the things I mostly stayed away from over the last few months, pastry breakfasts and beer mostly :)

By Wednesday I was pretty relaxed and recovered from the marathon and the weather was nice – an idea popped into my head, what about doing a Wicklow Way record attempt on Thursday. I had not really planned anything for it but I was still very fit, the weather looked okay and Mel (who would be my support) and I were flexible enough with our jobs that we could free up the time to go for it. 15 minutes of writing up posts on various forums to make the attempt official (stating start time and projected times etc...) and I had backed myself into a corner where I had to do it :)

Final prep

I keep my bikes in race ready mode (I'm very particular about having everything perfect) as much as possible so getting the nutrition ready for the attempt and going through maps of the course was really the only preparation that I needed to perform. Mel was going to meet me at 7 locations along the way for food support and probably a lot more places to take photos. I headed off to bed for a relatively late start from Marley Park at 10am (The park only opens at that time) - the last thing I did before I slept was ask myself - "Am I mad?"

The course itself is best described on this website – but basically, it is almost all off-road with a large amount of climbing – around 4,000 meters over the 130km course. I had ridden the first half several times and was very comfortable with it but the second half remained a mystery. Apparently, it was the 'easy' section – or at least, a great deal less climbing than the first half.

Mel had many tasks, feed support, photography and timing

I felt very lazy as Mel drove me over to the start of the Wicklow Way – it's less than 10 minutes from my home on the bike but I thought I should conserve energy as much as possible. We arrived, I set up my bike and we hung around taking a few photos. The first section would see me weave through the park before I tackle the first climb – the Kilmashogue Hill Climb. Technically, cycling is forbidden in the park and I had tried to contact the ranger in relation to this to let him know my plans and seek advice – unfortunately, I was unable to get a working number. My plan was then to ride very slowly through the park (a slow jogging pace) and dismount and walk if I meet groups of people – there were more than enough kilometres in front of me that this was never going to be an issue in the long run.

So which way should I go?

Mel and I

Really, am I mad?

I grabbed my first bottle of TorQ Energy, a bar and a gel (I planned to consume about that much every 1 to 1:10 hours) and off I went.

And off I go

More to come...

Weather in Ornans

14C and a 45% chance of rain! That sounds worse than Ireland.

Reports from the last two weekends of racing on the way soon - damn my busy life - 'off-season' will be here soon.

Final Race of the Year?

Xtrem/Loue 2008 : World Cup VTT Marathon via Zapiks

Marathon World Cup in France.

2008 National Marathon Championships

I have competed in a lot of marathon type races so far this year, three UK 100km NPS Marathons (another in two weeks), the World Championships, Bontrager 24/12 and Mountain Mayhem so I went into our National Marathon Championships pretty comfortable with the idea that I could go and win the race if I pushed hard and wasn't too unlucky. This is the story of the 2008 Nationals...

The course was going to be two laps for a 31km course that included 850meters of climb. The 850 meters really does not tell the full story as there was very little easy meters gained – almost all of the climbing was tough off road with the major ascent (up Sheahan) being only the second time in the last 2 years that I acutally had to use the granny ring!


After the hill climb champs and all the driving I was pretty tired when I got to Dublin and set about getting ready for the race – getting the bike ready (changing a rear tire - to a previously used, known good one), getting food ready and trying to relax a little took me to midnight – a little later than I wanted with a 7:30am wakeup call for the race.

The Seahan Climb

Race day arrived with blue skies and my brother Mark arriving at my place. He had given up his day to give me some support (mental, food and mechanical) during the race. We arrived and signed in – there was going to be around 100 starters for the race. Shortly after 10am we rolled off. The first 5 minutes or were on a slightly rolling tarmac descent to the first climb – a really beautiful single track climb. James McClusky, Evan Ryan and myself went to the front and kept the pace pretty steady, that is until about 500 meters from the single track entrance. I didn't want anyone holding me up on the technical climb so I had all the motivation I needed to go quickly. The first 7-8 got in clean anyway (Joe McCall lead us in with me on his wheel) and we all settled into a high tempo pace. After the first singletrack climb I went to the front and tried to control the race from there. Due to the nature of the terrain, speeds were not going to be very fast here so I rather control the tempo from the front. A group of 6 (I think) of us rode the first 15km to the feed zone together where flying Junior, Liam McCreavy and myself broke off the front. This carried on around the open mountain traverse and then up the difficult ascent of Seahan. At the top of Seehan, I had about a minute on James (in second position for the senior race. The junior race was only 1 lap so I was not too bothered with them). I was enjoying the descent being pretty careful not to clip anything and go easy on the bike and I started to think to myself – this isn't too bad. I blitzed down a section of fireroad that lead to a road section when I heard a massive pop – damn! My rear tire was sliced open – on a fireroad. I was actually pretty calm, spun around the bike and started going about throwing in a tube (I use tubeless). For the race, I had everything planned very well but I forgot one vital thing – my CO2. I only had a tiny mini pump with me that I brought only if everything else failed. I continuted to put in a tube as I watched all my competitors fly by. I knew that I could be strong on the second lap so I didn't want to make any mistakes so I was very careful putting in the tube (no more spares) and pumped the tire to a high preasure. Eventually I got going, about 5 minutes behind the lead. (Tubeless is amazing – but you do forget how to change tubes quickly!)


I got back to the start/finish for the first lap cleanly and went about changing the rear wheel to one of my spares – I flaffed around at this and ended up wasting a bit more time (Thanks to Mark and Sean for handling me :)). I hit the road and knew I was about 7 minutes behind James. I knew that I could make that up in the 31km lap but it was going to be tough. With that, I sped off (being careful not to go too hard). As the various climbs came, I picked off people until I saw James on the Seahan climb. At this point, barring mechnical problems, I knew that I would catch him. A few minutes from the top of the 20 minute climb I caught and passed him and worked hard to distance him a bit before the descent. With the lead secured – I was very careful descending. I did not mind if he caught me as there was enough climb at the end, and my legs felt good enough that I could attack again if I had to. I rode the rest of the lap well and arrived at the finish line with a 6 minute lead over 2nd place and my first Elite National Championship.

James, myself and Evan

IMBRC hosted and ran the event (with a little help from EPIC on the day) and it ran perfectly. The course was challenging and super well marked with marshals at lots of locations along the route. Food, tea, showers etc... after the race went down well, and they even managed to organise some sunshine for the day!

So, with the National Champion jersey for the year, I guess that means I will have to do a few more marathons next year :)

Many thanks to Shane in Cycleways (bicycle support etc.) and my brother Mark and Sean for helping me out on the day.

There is a report and results available here as well as some photos (two in this post) here.