Author Archives: niall

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Walk | Hike | Camp | Blog 👣⛰️🏕🎥

Done and Dusted…

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It seems like I’ve been almost 50 for ever. It’s one of those milestones that seems to carry a lot of significance and one I haven’t really been looking forward to. This will give some of you a giggle but 50 just seems old (or at least it used to!).

The protracted nature of turning 50 has been exaggerated by going to Paris as a present for both of us back in April and then getting a surprise birthday cake and balloons at a family get together at the beginning of June.

Last Friday saw the day finally dawn. Like most things we build up in our head it was just another day after all. No earth shattering revelations and no sudden aging process occurred. It appears that I’m still me, just one day older.

I’d booked the weekend off work and while we had “plans” only one was organised. We went out for a meal on Saturday night (Friday wasn’t available) to The Red Door near Buncrana. This is a much more upmarket location than what we’re normally used to and the meal was pretty damn good as expected.

Other plans were discussed, rescheduled and then abandoned as the weather teased us before finally disappointing us but all in all I had a great weekend that was completely family orientated, as it should be 🙂

My wife does like pointing out to me that I don’t seem to realise what age I am and still think I’m 25 but I guess now it’s time to enjoy being fifty-something and discovering what this actually means. Then I can spend a few years stressing about turning 60….which really does feel old 🤣

This Is The Way!

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The Bluestack Way

For anyone that follows me on Strava it probably appears that I’ve fallen off the face of the Earth or have decided to rededicate my life to the couch potato lifestyle. While I’m no athlete I haven’t been completely idle either.

At the beginning of May I came to the realisation that cycling had become something of a chore, it had developed into an activity I was doing for reasons other than enjoyment. It wasn’t that I’d fallen out of love with cycling, it was that I’d rekindled my old love of hillwalking (or hiking if you prefer) and walking in general and I was finding them much more fulfilling than cycling. I’ve spent a lot more time in the hills this year and rediscovered why I enjoyed it so much. For the last 10 years I’ve defined myself as a cyclist so, while I haven’t turned a pedal since the 26th of April, I don’t think I’m finished completely and have no intention of getting rid of my bikes.

Me being me, I felt the need for a challenge to motivate a daily walking habit to build strength and fitness for my weekend trips into the hills. With my 50th birthday this year (now into the final countdown) I also wanted this challenge to be out of the ordinary and something I’d have to push myself to the limit to achieve. I wanted a walking challenge to replicate the challenge of Audax.

While looking for ideas I took my inspiration from two illustrious sources. Fellow blogger Unironedman (Declan) is an avid runner with many long distance challenges under his belt. Last year he organised and completed an FKT (Fastest Known Time) attempt on the 115km long St. Declan’s Way. You can read his description of the “Day on the Way” here and watch his video below.

This year Declan completed a run of the full Wicklow Way (~130km) as a memorial to his recently deceased Dad. You can also read about that epic adventure here.

My second source of inspiration was (is?) Ellie from the excellent Tough Soles. Ellie and her partner Carl have a well established website and YouTube channel that originally started as a challenge to walk every official waymarked trail in Ireland. They completed this a while ago but the channel is still going strong. Ellie is currently climbing every Vandeleur-Lynam peak in Ireland (600m+) on back to back days. More info on their website or follow their channel to see how she gets on.

In July last year Ellie ran the 56km Leitrim Way setting an FKT in the process. She documented that day and you can watch the video below.

Despite flirting with running a few years ago I’m not very good at it and just about managed to get to the 5K distance. Ultra-running is simply not for me. However, ultra-walking (any distance greater than a marathon – 42km) is also a thing and walking I am good at!

My nearest waymarked trail is The Bluestack Way. It runs from Donegal Town through the Bluestack Mountains to Glenties and finishes in Ardara. I’ve walked bits of it to access walks in the Bluestacks and I walked a large chunk of it in 2012 on the 30km Bluestack Challenge. Overall it is 52km although, in typical Irish fashion, it is listed as 65km. This is because there is a lower level alternative route for the more mountainous section, that is recommended in bad weather and they’ve lumped both together to come up with 65km.

© hiiker

At 52km it definitely qualifies as an ultra route and I feel that it is doable in one day. With that in mind I registered the reverse route (Ardara to Donegal Town) on the official FKT website and plan to complete it on Sunday 27th August. I also plan to complete it fully unsupported meaning I have to carry all my own food and water, I can’t have any support en route, can’t buy anything in shops (not that there are many anyway) and can’t cache food or supplies along the way.

I threw together a 12 week “training plan” that essentially consists of daily walking with progressively longer walks at the weekend. Today saw me at the halfway mark and appropriately completing a 26km training walk. Although I’m tired this evening I’m feeling better than I expected.

My only issue is that I’m fighting a recurrence of Plantar Fasciitis in my left foot. This flared up before I started walking regularly again but unsurprisingly the increase hasn’t helped it much. Ice and massage will hopefully keep it at bay and prevent it derailing my challenge.

Paris for la 3ème time…

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2023 is a roundy birthday for me as I turn 50 in July. I’ve never been a big party person so at some stage last year I decided I’d rather mark my birthday with a holiday for just Catriona and myself to head away and spend some time together. We’ve visited Paris twice before with the last visit in September 2004, almost a full year before Owen was born! I’m not a city person normally but for some reason Paris clicked with me before and I’ve always wanted to return.

We booked to fly out at 7am from Dublin on Saturday morning* and back from Paris at 10:30pm on Tuesday night giving us maximum time to spend enjoying the city. This meant a lack of sleep on Friday night but we reckoned it was worth it. I headed to bed at 9pm with the intention of getting a few hours of rest, if not sleep, ready to leave about 1am. The holiday almost started with a disaster when I woke suddenly at 1:30am having either slept through the alarm or turned it off in my sleep! A minor panic, a very quick bite to eat and we got away just before 2am. Despite the heavy rain we made good time and arrived at the park and fly hotel at 4:20am just in time for the next shuttle bus and were checked in and through security only 30min later than I originally planned and with loads of time for food before our flight boarded.

*coincidentally Saturday was April 1st and the 25th Anniversary of the day we met!

We flew with Ryanair so arrived at Beauvais Airport. This means a bus transfer into Paris of approximately 1hr15min. With the queue and a further metro transfer we arrived close to our accommodation at just after noon. The Metro station was less than 10min from the Eiffel Tower and approximately 10min from our accommodation and as we could check in from 2pm we decided to hold on to our luggage while we went for our first look at la Tour.

After a short dander and simple enjoyment of having finally arrived we bought some overpriced, but very welcome, lunch from one of the food stalls and sat on a wall above the Seine and simply soaked in the atmosphere before wandering off to find our accommodation.

We had booked a studio apartment via Air BnB* and after some minor confusion over the entrance door we were in and able to get rid of all the necessary luggage and gear and get a short lie down before going out to explore.

*initially booked as hotels were ferociously expensive but this spot turned out to be almost perfect, gave us loads of freedom and was in a cracker location.

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around letting ourselves go with no real destination and visiting some of the spots we had visited on previous trips. We started back at the Eiffel Tower, walked through the gardens behind (loads of people using the grassy areas to play, eat, drink and read), visited Hôtel des Invalides (where Napoleon lies in his tomb below a golden roof), finishing off at Place de la Concorde and les Jardin des Tuileries.

With feet and legs that were now tiring quickly we decided to jump on the Metro back to where we started and began the hunt for somewhere to eat. An Italian restaurant close to the apartment and doing a tasty sounding range of pizzas was soon picked as the one. I was feeling good about my ability to communicate in poor French until the waiter only brought us one pizza instead of two! I was halfway through it before we managed to rectify the situation 🤣 We left stuffed with pizza and topped off with beer and wine and also our first indication that France was also showing signs of price increases, just like home!

Catriona’s sister had been in Paris the previous week and had told us about the light show at the Eiffel Tower after dark. After a short rest at the apartment we wrapped up and headed back out. We were halfway across the bridge at 9pm and in a perfect spot to watch the 5min show.

Walking home with achy legs and feet an early night was most definitely needed to be able for 3 more days exploring.

The Stand

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The Stand by Stephen King

I’m just under halfway through this incredibly long and detailed story. I started it just after the 3rd anniversary of the start of the Covid pandemic which somehow seemed like a good idea. Thankfully our outbreak wasn’t as extreme as that in The Stand – almost the entire population of America (possibly the world) wiped out in approximately 2 weeks by a human engineered weaponised flu virus.

The plot develops into a dark fantasy battle between good and evil as the survivors gravitate towards two distinct communities that seem destined to clash.

However, it starts with the story of how the outbreak began and spread, the small group of survivors and how they coped as the world died around them.

Having lived through our own much less virulent pandemic it was a little bit close to the bone. It especially brought back memories of those scary reports from Italy when it seemed like Covid was unstoppable. It was also felt frighteningly realistic when describing how the virus was developed, tested and eventually how it escaped. The real horror though was the attempted cover-up. That also felt too real for comfort.

The other feeling I’m getting from the story and the reason that prompted this post before finishing the book, is that it seems to me to be one of the big inspirations for the storyline of The Walking Dead.

The zombies in The Walking Dead are caused by an unknown virus and the survivors are immune and untouched by some unknown freak of nature or genetics until they are killed and then reanimate. What is less obvious though is the inspiration for some of the characters.

Negan is one of the most evil protagonists in the TV show and so much of his character seems inspired by Randall Flagg who is also known as “The Walking Man“. So many of Negan’s behaviours, speech patterns and characteristics just scream Randall Flagg that it’s almost distracting in the book.

Eugene is one of the complicated characters from The Walking Dead. He is a cowardly and insecure man, highly intelligent and has a peculiarly individual way of speaking in overly complicated language. At one stage he is working for Negan and The Saviors. To me Eugene is directly inspired by Harold Lauder.

There are other similarities but these are the two that stand out the most to me. I wonder has anyone else found anything that I’ve missed?

Planning…

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To keep my positive focus I’ve now booked time off work for the 600km spin. It starts Saturday 10th June so I’ve booked a couple of days to allow time to panic properly and get my bike and gear sorted. I’ve also booked the week off after for a bit of a holiday. I hope I don’t need it all for recovery!

Perspective

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I’m having some real doubts about the Audax Challenge I’ve set myself this year. The turn of the month, my reasonable success restarting training in January and starting to increase my training for February has made it all more real than it was in the early days of January.

My first big marker is April 23rd with the Dark Hedges 200. I’m mostly confident that I will be able to manage that ride. I’ve done both the course and the distance a number of times and know what to expect. It’s the next BIG marker that has me really worried – Coast to Coast 600 on June 10th just 7 weeks after the Dark Hedges! I’ve no experience of distances over 200km and none of multi day rides either. That scares the 💩 out of me right now!

part i

part ii

Where the brain starts to screw me now is with those doubts. I’m finding it much harder this month to keep the same motivation for my training. Some of this is that the initial excitement is wearing off and that shit’s getting real. Mentally it would be much easier to find an excuse to give up than deal with the possibility of failure. However, I keep setting targets, making plans and focusing on the next ride.

On Sunday I rode almost 60km, slightly longer than I expected and my longest ride since August 2021! Milestones like that keep me motivated.

Perspective? My blogger friend Jim at Fit Recovery is dealing with the shock of being made redundant after 25 years with the same company and the prospect of starting all over again with a new company. Good luck with the new job Jim 👍

Light Up My Life

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As requested by Paul over on 36×25.blog here is a rundown of the lights I use to keep me safe and allow me to ride at night.

Daytime Riding

I know a lot of people who dismiss the usefulness of lights during the day but I’m very much a “be safe, be seen” type of person and ride virtually every time with a rear and front flashing light.

Up front I have a Lezyne Micro Drive 500 XL. This has nine different modes including flash, pulse and various levels of steady light. It has an integrated adjustable silicone strap that fits pretty much any handlebar size and a weatherproof full size USB plug (no lead required) for charging. The USB plug is protected by a removable, chunky rubber cover which is its only niggle. This cover is not attached to the light body and can fall off or get mislaid. Thankfully these are available to buy separately despite the light now being discontinued (other current models use the same charging system). Despite having mine about 5 years I still haven’t gotten around to creating a fixing system and yes, I have managed to lose a couple of them!

The photo above shows the light on the top of the bar but I prefer it under the bar and the adjustable strap allows for this very easily especially as the light can swivel on the strap. Keeping the light under the bar gives a cleaner looking cockpit and more space on the bars.

My rear light (Cateye Viz 300) resides on my seatpost as I use a bottle style tool kit in my second bottle holder and no rear saddle bag.

This light is pretty new and really good. I was lucky to avail of a deal with my club where they bought a batch of these and subsidised the cost to members. It only cost me €15 which is an absolute bargain.

I run it on flash mode (but not the most annoying pattern) and having seen it on other club members’ bikes it’s really noticeable.

spot the guy with the same light

Removing the light from the holder is a bit of a faff and rather than potentially breaking it I tend to remove the whole thing, strap and all for charging. This means I could potentially lose the strap but on the flipside I’m unlikely to lose the light while out.

Night Riding

First of all I use both the above lights, still in flashing mode. I don’t use the Lezyne light on full beam mode. I found it weak for night time MTBing and upgraded to a better light (below) but I haven’t tried it on the road. I think I’ll see what it’s like this week in case I ever need it as a backup. As a flashing light it’s an effective additional eye catcher for approaching traffic.

My main headlight is the Moon Meteor Storm Pro which was originally purchased for MTB riding off road on forest tracks and trails. The level 5 full beam is really good for this kind of use.

Using it on the road though, it’s not as good. L5  is way too bright for cars while L4 or 3 are less dazzling but don’t provide as much visibility. Changing through the levels requires cycling down and through the flashing modes which isn’t practical when riding fast. The light did come with a remote that I’ve never used (and had forgotten about until now!) that might make this a bit easier and I will investigate that this week also. The model I have (max 1700 lumen) is now discontinued but there’s a very similar new version available with a 2000 lumen boost.

The major downside of this light is its weight. Including the mount it weighs 260g. It comes with a helmet mount but I wouldn’t fancy that weight on my head!

This light though is rock solid. When properly tightened the mount will not move no matter how rough the road surface. This was especially good on fast forest tracks on the MTB. However, I managed to break the clip on the base of the light on an Audax ride when trying to adjust the angle while riding. I was concerned about blinding oncoming traffic so tried to twist it down by manipulating the light itself. Of course it moved, the mount didn’t and the plastic clip broke. As it is part of the light body it can’t be replaced. A bodge repair using electrical tape saved me that night and a slightly tidier wrap of tape now secures the light to the mount.

This year the club is repeating the light subsidy but this time it’s front lights – Cateye AMPP 500. At €15 again it’s too good to miss and even if it isn’t as good as the Moon light it will be a good replacement for the Lezyne. I’m hoping to get mine this week and I’m looking forward to testing it.

On my helmet I use two additional lights. My old rear light (Cateye Rapid Mini) is now on the back as a blinking high level visibility light.

On top I have a second Lezyne Micro Drive 500 XL. This is set on the lowest full beam level and I find it incredibly useful for reading my Garmin screen and checking gears, seeing my pedals for clipping in etc. On this mode it gives me just enough light and lasts forever. Also it’s not very heavy meaning it doesn’t annoy me at all. A heavy light could cause a sore neck or cause the helmet to tilt annoyingly to one side or down over my eyes.

Future Upgrades

This setup works well for me and I’ve used it successfully on Winter 200km Audax rides when shorter days mean that I have to start and finish in the dark. However, if I’m going to ride 400km and 600km this year I’ll need to upgrade my headlights for longer lasting performance.

The ultimate Audax setup would be a hub based dynamo but I don’t fancy spending that amount of money. This light could be a very good alternative – IXON IQ Premium from Busch + Müller. It runs on AA size batteries and two sets will provide 10 hrs lighting and if I run out of rechargeables then regular Duracell will work in a pinch. At €80 on most sites it’s a lot cheaper than a dynamo wheel!

not the sexiest of lights!

Be Seen!

It’s important not to forget the second part of that saying and make sure that as well as being able to see I can also be seen. On local roads round home I’m riding shorter loops and I’m happy wearing a reflective harness. This doesn’t interfere with my pockets and is enough that I can be seen by following or oncoming cars.

On Audax rides when I spend a lot longer riding in the dark and being a lot more tired I prefer something a lot more visible and have used a light reflective workman’s shirt over my gear. This is heavier, less fitted and restricts access to my rear pockets but is incredibly visible at night.

Header image by Reactual.com