Tag Archives: challenge

week two

14 days done and still going well. A busy week from a family point of view required some careful organisation to make sure I didn’t break my streak.

I managed to keep up the early starts this week with a 6am spin on the same route as last week each day before work. I’m definitely preferring mornings for training versus evenings but especially so this week. It’s been very warm and humid every morning, except for a chilly, foggy Saturday. The evenings were even warmer and would have been a real struggle.

It was my days off that provided the challenges. Catriona wanted to go visit the Cuilcagh Mountain Boardwalk on Sunday which required an early cycle. Having just an extra half hour in bed I squeezed in 55K and was back early enough to get away at a decent time. The Boardwalk was very busy with lots of people making the most of the good weather but it turned out that we were better off being a little bit later. Monday morning was interesting with legs that felt like concrete slowing me way down.

Thursday was a big family day with Conor’s Confirmation ceremony that had been postponed from earlier in the year due to lockdown. We got all dressed up and went to the Mass before returning home to celebrate with family and friends.

With some last minute jobs around the house to be done and a trip to the barbers needed it meant another early start to squeeze in 50K and get home with enough time. Managed to get two decent climbs into the mix also to make the ride count that little bit extra.

The craic was so good last night that the party went on longer than I expected and I wasn’t in bed until almost midnight. The humidity made sleep difficult and I was awake at 5am with no chance of sleeping again. Somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed and on to the bike. Definitely the toughest morning so far and the closest I’ve come to throwing in the towel.

I knew that this morning would leave me virtually half way to my mileage target. I had a mini plan to get in an extra kilometre or so but my legs were having none of it and I counted myself lucky just to make it home!

Week 3 starts tomorrow morning and is looking to be less busy. Planning to complete my August Metric Challenge ride on Sunday so I should be ahead of my target again by the end of the week 🤞

week one

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My first week of the 31 Days of Biking challenge is complete and so far, so good.

I’m aiming for 230km per week so after Week 1 I’ve banked 36km in case I have issues later in the month getting in my mileage.

Four of my runs were early mornings, getting away at 6am for a 25km blast before heading to work. This route is nice and simple and doesn’t require too much thought or effort at that time of the morning.

Half of it is on the main N15 and although the roads are still quiet it’s a lot busier than I expected, especially with HGVs. I guess they’re trying to beat the traffic through the night and early morning.

My longest spin was 74km on Sunday, to the Ghost House, but as Monday was a Bank Holiday I also managed to sneak in a bonus 57km spin. This was in support of our Club Beginner Group that is in its second week. I cycled up and down and then completed 25km with the group, providing support and advice as they gain confidence on the road and in traffic. It was a very social night, very relaxed and very enjoyable.

I had planned to get 50-60km in again on Wednesday, my second day off, but life intervened. Family duties took priority which meant I didn’t get out until quite late in the day and was under pressure to get home for 8pm. 33km had to satisfy me but it kept me on track.

Only 7 days in and I’m starting to see benefits already. I can feel my legs getting stronger and I seem to be getting faster as my morning times are improving. I’m not sure how much of this is due to weather conditions through the week but at least they’re heading in the right direction.

Week 2 starts tomorrow with some additional challenges that will require careful time management.

31 days of biking

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There are a couple of streak challenges out there that have caught my eye over the years. One of these is “Every Day in May“. The aim of this challenge is to complete a physical activity every day for the month of May with the option of raising money for charity while doing so. The challenge is designed mainly for walking and running 5 or 10K each day but in 2017 I decided to do it as a cycling challenge. I completed the challenge with a total of 1500km for the month.

That was the year when I was at my fittest and strongest on the bike. I did my first 200km Audax that May and went on to complete the Four Provinces Challenge and a total of five 200km Audax events for the year starting a four month streak for RRTY that unfortunately died when I missed December. RRTY remains an aspiration for me as does the next level challenge of Super Randonneur.

I had the Four Provinces medals framed by one of my friends who is a photographer and it is one of my favourite possessions.

I originally came across Every Day in May when I saw a reference to “30 Days of Biking“. By then it was well into April so I went looking for something similar. I completed Every Day in May in 2019 again, mostly with walking activities, but I’ve never gone back to do 30 Days of Biking. I looked at it earlier this year but with Covid19 restrictions I couldn’t build up enough motivation to ride my bike at all never mind every day.

My running has been going well and I finished the None2Run program at the end of June.

Since then I’ve played around with a number of 10K training plans and ran a further four 5Ks while trying to find a good progression plan. Eventually I settled on a modified version of N2R that was suggested by another member of the N2R Facebook group. It involves slow/fast running intervals instead of walking/running for the 25 minutes. It’s the perfect program for me as I eventually worked out that I don’t really want to run 10K, I like intervals, like running early in the morning and don’t want to give up more time in the morning before work. Unfortunately, I’ve managed to pick up an injury after completing the first week when I ran a 5K. It was my fastest 5K ever and I think that was the problem.

The injury is the same as the one that stopped me in my tracks in December. It’s a strained left calf muscle and I worked out in November that it was caused by running too much, too quickly in the program. I figure I’m once again running too fast, too quick and have aggravated the same muscle. I need to slow down and build speed and distance more slowly but first I need to rest and heal.

Initially I decided to walk on my run days but that’s taking a full hour and isn’t really resting my calf. Instead I’ve decided to take on the 30 Days of Biking challenge for the month of August, making it into a 31 Days of Biking. I’m going to keep getting up before work for a 25km/1 hour spin and keep up my longer spins on my days off. In 2017 I managed 1500km and I’ve only hit 1000km three times ever, with the last time being May 2017, so I’m also setting a distance target of 1000km for August just to keep me fully focused each week. It may seem odd to increase my cycling activity to rest my leg but cycling and running use quite different muscles or at least the same ones in different ways.

So far I’m off to a good start with an early morning 25km yesterday and a 74km spin this afternoon to the Ghost House. Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday so I’m planning to add another slightly longer spin to keep me ahead of schedule for the month.

The plan is to be a lot fitter and stronger by the start of September and ready to get back running again.

june 31st

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All through lockdown the weather was great with lots of settled and sunny days. While it was very welcome and enjoyable it wasn’t possible to enjoy it properly as a cyclist with the travel restrictions that were in place.

Since going back to work on the 8th of June the weather has taken a significant turn for the worse. It has become cooler but also a lot windier and with spells of rain including a couple of unseasonable storms.

The weather, less spare time and tiredness from work has led to reduced cycling opportunities and therefore reduced mileage from May to June.

I had a plan to complete the June Metric Challenge on Sunday but a weekend of heavy rain, thunderstorms and localised flooding put paid to that. Yesterday was my first day off since meaning this year June has 31 days, I’m calling 2020 a Lockdown Leap Year!

My chosen route was an extension of my last longish ride and a route I haven’t ridden since October 2017 taking me across the border to Castlederg and home via Newtownstewart and Strabane. Total distance was to be 107km.

Everything was going well until the 60K mark, between Castlederg and Newtownstewart. I started feeling queasy and my energy levels were starting to drop. The first half of the spin was fast with a 29.9km/h average at 50K. I was starting to think I’d gone out too hard and was having my first “bonk“. I managed to crawl my way to Newtownstewart where I’d decided to have a break, eat a sandwich and have a can of Coke.

Unfortunately my sandwich choice wasn’t as plain as I’d expected with lots of mayonnaise and onions that wasn’t exactly what my queasy stomach needed. Initially when I left Newtownstewart I felt a little better and with 75K done I was confident of getting home in decent shape. However, with a bit of a headwind and a rolling hilly road my batteries were soon depleted again and I was in limp mode all the way to Strabane and 90K.

I pulled into a shop, got a cup of tea to try and settle my stomach, worked out that 10K would take me to Castlefinn and made arrangements for Catriona to come and pick me up there. With that decision made and a bit of relief from the breeze I pushed on with my head down and simply ground out the final 10K to get across the 100K line.

I’m still not feeling 100% today, a kind of hungover type feeling. I have a feeling that I’ve picked up a mild bug, probably at work, and hopefully will be back to normal again soon with a few days of rest and TLC.

metric challenge: february

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A few years ago I read a tempocyclist post about his old club in England and the metric challenge they ran. The goal is to ride a 100km cycle at least once a month for a calendar year. Since then it’s something I’ve been attracted to especially as Strava also use the same distance for their monthly Gran Fondo.

Audax Ireland have a similar challenge, but taken to another level, to complete a 200km “Brevet” every month for 12 consecutive months. This challenge is called “Randonneur Round the Year” (RRTY). Having completed the “Four Provinces Challenge” in 2017 I’ve always had a goal of completing the RRTY. I started twice but for various reasons was unable to keep the run going. I cycled so little in 2019 and lost so much fitness that it seems like a fading dream but I’m hoping that a metric challenge this year will help me get there. At the very least it will be motivation to keep cycling.

My first 2020 metric challenge ride was near the beginning of January and with the Club. February has been such a terrible weather month with a number of bad storms and very wintry weather I’ve been cycling very little and thought I was going to run out of time. I managed to squeeze in a 50km spin on Sunday with the plan to cycle a solo 100km today.

I had a number of errands for today and at least one that had to be done early this morning which pushed the spin back later than normally suits me. That kind of worked out today though as it was very cold overnight and the delayed start meant the roads were properly thawed out. Snow caps on the hill tops convinced me of my plan to stick to the easier low ground and the same route as Sunday but doubled up.

Weather today was similar to Sunday with long bright spells. Thankfully less windy but definitely much colder. Dry all the way except for a heavy shower for the last 8km that turned into a snow shower for the last 4!

It’s a relatively easy route when there are lower windspeeds but lack of fitness made it difficult enough today, especially the second return from Strabane and into the headwind. Lack of time in the saddle also led to aches and pains that wouldn’t normally bother me from shoulders to ass and even in my feet as tiredness set in.

Two rookie mistakes didn’t make it any easier. A much needed tea break in Lifford at 63km was taken outside which led to me getting quite cold. It took a good 20mins to get back to a comfortable temperature and sapped energy I should have been conserving.

I also badly underestimated food intake, leaving the house with just two small bars and was feeling the effects all the way from Castlefinn on my second loop. By the time I got to The Crossroads at 83km I needed to stop or I was in danger of “bonking“. Another cup of tea and a chicken and bacon wrap and I was good to go again.

Coming out of Ballybofey I realised that I wasn’t in the shape to make it up the 1.6km climb to the house. It’s tough enough at the end of any ride but I felt today that it would be a step too far. I decided to arrange for Catriona to pick me up in Castlefinn and get a lift home, avoiding the hill climb and maximising the benefit of the tailwind to finish. Turned out to be a great idea when the rain/snow arrived for the final section!

All in all a tough day on the bike but I’m very pleased to get it done and hopefully March will see better fitness and an easier time.

niall harran

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