I know that’s not the song title but I can’t say it without singing it in my head!
As September rolled over into October it appears that I am on a bit of a roll too…
Those three spikes are 3 rides of 100km+ in the last 4 weeks. It would have been 3 weeks in a row but Storm Amy blew in last week and spoiled that! We lost power on Friday shortly after 4pm at the height of the red warning and it stayed off until well into Saturday evening. We lost water on Saturday morning and it was Sunday afternoon before that returned to normal (our supply comes from a reservoir on the side of the valley that requires pumps to fill from the main supply lower down).
Having booked a long, 4 day weekend off some months ago, it turned out to be a bit of a wasted weekend but I was finally able to get out on the bike on Monday for a nice, social spin with two clubmates to Raphoe for tea and back home via Ballybofey.
This was followed by night rides with the Club on Tuesday and Thursday evening, both around 30km but on the MTB on hilly back roads so decent workouts over 2 hours each. Saturday morning I went out with the Stabiliser group for a short, easy recovery ride before the main 100km ride on Sunday.
5 rides and 240km in the one week is very rare for me, even when I was at my most active, but it should be noted I only got one ride in the previous week…
Sunday morning it was back to Audax and time to get in the October RRTY 100 ride. This time we had decided to ride a route recently published by another Audax Ireland member just a week or two ago.
I’ve no idea of the significance of the name!
Myself and Grainne had managed to talk two other clubmates into joining us. Paul will do a few but Brian may give the full RRTY Challenge a go. We publicised our intent on the Club WhatsApp group and as we coordinated our start with the Sunday morning Club ride we ended up with 7 in total!
Official starting point where we picked up the route*
Overall it was a really good route. I’ve ridden all of it before but not always in the same direction as Sunday and definitely not all together. The 1000m elevation is edging towards hard for a 100km ride but it was surprisingly tough on the legs. There aren’t a big number of climbs but they’re all hard climbs. For many routes around here the majority of the elevation is gained on long, gradual climbs but Sunday we earned them on some pretty steep ground. Returning to the MTB on Tuesday night I could still feel the lingering effects!
Sandwiches, bars and sugary drinks were devoured at the much needed lunch stop at Victoria Bridge*Big squad out on Tuesday evening enjoying the unseasonably mild and settled weather*
Sunday also marked my one year anniversary of rejoining the Club via the Stabiliser Group. A fitting way to mark it and not something I was expecting just 12 months ago!
October 12th 2024*
We’re experiencing a very unusual spell of mild and settled weather for the last two weeks (calm after the storm?) but that is due to break down this weekend to something more typical. I’m keeping a close eye and hoping that Saturday stays good as I have a plan to rectify some unfinished business that will hopefully be the subject of my next post…. 🤞
*all photos of Club activities courtesy of Brian McElhinney 📸
With my increasing mileage I’ve been getting a real taste for long distance cycling again. 200km Audax still seems like a big stretch in terms of fitness but I came across the RRTY 100 Challenge recently that was introduced by Audax Ireland this year.
A standard RRTY (Randonneur Round The Year) involves completing a 200km Audax Ireland approved route each month for 12 months in a row. This year they have started adding 100km routes as a taster and introduction to Audax. In tandem they have created the RRTY 100 for the shorter distance ie ride a 100km Audax Ireland approved route 12 months in a row.
Checking out the Audax Ireland site it quickly became clear that the closest route was in Sligo! A discussion on the Audax WhatsApp group turned up a more local 106km route that is in the planning stages but it has a mental 1600m of climbing and I’m not sure I’m ready for that!
It was clear I was going to have to come up with at least one route of my own. I have a few 100km+ routes I’ve done in the past but one in particular that I’ve been thinking about for a while.
It was originally developed by one of the guys in the Club as a charity event a few years ago. Our Club is the Finn Wheelers and we live in the Finn Valley area which is named after the river Finn. The Finn is 64km long and rises from Lough Finn, close to Fintown (are you getting the theme yet!). It flows East to Lifford where it joins with the Mourne coming out of Tyrone to form the Foyle which flows to Derry and out to sea at Lough Foyle.
The aim of the route is to cycle the length of the river on both sides crossing only at the two end points. As a play on the well known Lap The Lough event in Northern Ireland we named it Lap The Finn.
As its been 5 years since the original event I arranged to ride the route as an organiser ride recce and get credit from Audax Ireland for having done it even though it hadn’t been published as an official route just yet. I’d no idea what condition the roads would be in and didn’t want to have to change the route post publication.
Fit enough back then to add on extra mileage from home!
I was hoping for company but ended up doing it solo on a blustery Sunday, just one week after the DNF at the Club Sportive. It was a cool enough day with blustery showers but I’d learned my lesson from the week before and was kitted out in my winter tights, long finger gloves, rear mudguard and overshoes.
It turned out to be a challenging but enjoyable ride and apart from one section, descending from Lough Muck to Fintown, was pretty good surfaces the whole way. There’s a fantastic variety of scenery with the section above Ballybofey getting up into the edge of the Bluestacks and quite remote.
Photos from the day make it look like I had sunshine the whole time!
“Muc” is Irish for pig and I particularly like this sculpture looking down over “Loch Muc”
It felt really good to get this ride done and it was huge boost to my confidence that had taken a bit of hammering after the previous weekend.
A little bit slower this time…
That evening Grainne (one of my clubmates and fairly regular cycling companion) contacted me about the route. She’s completed the Cycle Against Suicide Mizen to Malin ride a couple of weeks ago and thinks the RRTY 100 would be a good challenge to keep her on the bike. I wanted another long spin for the weekend so we arranged to ride it on the Sunday.
So glad we did as it was about as perfect a cycling day as could be hoped for. It was chilly, but not cold, sunny and dry for the whole day and barely a breath of wind. It was already an enjoyable route but it’s always better to have company.
Since then the route has been officially posted on the Audax Ireland website. A bunch of others have also gone live and we’re hoping to ride one of them this weekend…
The original date for our Club Sportive was Sunday 31st of August, just 2 days after our return from holidays in Spain. Due to a terrible forecast the decision was made to postpone by 2 weeks. Correct decision but unfortunately the weather wasn’t much better Sunday last week 😔
For the last couple of months I’ve been determined to complete the 135km route and have been steadily increasing my mileage and distance with a 110km ride just before holidays.
After that ride I felt in great shape and despite concerns over a week of eating, drinking and lazing around I was confident that the big distance was achievable. Coming back off holidays I was feeling a bit sluggish and was kind of relieved that a two week postponement would give me a chance to shake it off and get in another long ride.
It didn’t work out like that though. Despite getting 5 spins completed I didn’t get another long one due to two crappy weekends. All 5 spins ended up in the 40km zone. I had planned for a 100km+ ride the weekend before but weather again put me off and I ended up with no ride at all!
I was watching the forecast all week in the run up to the Sportive and it wasn’t looking good at all. It varied slightly as the week wore on but from Wednesday on it was pretty clear that it was going to be a wet and windy one.
Saturday night I had quite a bit of nerves about the ride, had a bit of an unsettled night and woke up on Sunday still feeling pretty nervous as well as tired. At registration, with only 12 signed on for the 135km route, I was resigned to the fact I was going to be the lanterne rouge for the day.
Both the 62km and 135km groups left together as we were going in the same direction for approx the first 15km. Once the groups split it was obvious that I was considerably slower than everyone else on the long route and that I was going to be solo for the rest of the day.
FullRoute
Despite a very strong wind going through the wind tunnel section of Barnes Gap I had a decent ride all the way to Donegal Town (30km) and on to Laghey. Difficulty increased as I rode the rolling route into Ballyshannon (50km) but I somehow managed to sustain a 27kph average to that point.
On the approach to Ballyshannon I thought I glimpsed a cyclist a few minutes ahead of me on one of the climbs. Dropping off the main road and turning East to Belleek the guys in the first aid van had asked the two guys who were just ahead of me to wait so the three of us could ride together. I was concerned the other two guys were were considerably fitter and faster than me but they seemed happy to slow slightly to my pace and stay together.
It had already started raining quite heavily and now we were riding straight into the wind. Getting to Belleek wasn’t too bad but I had to leave all the work to the other two guys. They were setting a pace slightly faster than I was comfortable with and I was working hard to stay on the back wheel with no hope of getting in front to take a turn.
After Belleek the weather turned really shit! The rain was constant heavy now and the wind was a real problem. The road was pretty exposed and the crossing of Boa Island was one of the worst bits of cycling I’ve ever done. While the rain was hateful the wind was verging on dangerous. Gusts were hitting us off Lough Erne and there was quite a lot of traffic with a few dangerous passes especially considering the road conditions.
The other two guys had slowed down quite a bit too and despite the conditions I found I was able to get on the front a good few times and to complete decent pulls. By the time we crossed Boa Island and reached Kesh (84km) we were all suffering. I was really feeling the cold with numb hands and feet*, struggling to operate my gears and brakes and getting a pain in my left quad. One of the other guys was cramping badly, I could see him hitting his quads with a closed fist and he was no longer coming forward to take the front. The third guy still looked strong but a couple of km outside of Ederney he told me they were going to tap out at the food stop. Although I hadn’t voiced it I had been considering the same for a while and his announcement made up my mind.
Pulling into the food stop at Ederney our ride was done at 88km. It was pretty obvious that everyone was waiting for us to get in and although I might have been able to carry on I was very conscious that I was going to be very slow and that there were a number of people in the broom vans and at the finish that were going to have to wait for me to finish. Despite the disappointment and feeling like I’d failed I felt that it was the right thing to do.
Once we confirmed we were pulling out our bikes were loaded into the broom van while we grabbed something quick to eat and a hot cup of tea. The other two guys headed off with one of the ride organisers and I jumped into the broom van. About 20min up the road we came across the next two back markers and followed them back to the finish. One of these guys is a very strong cyclist from our Club and he was getting it tough. I ended up sitting beside him in the canteen at the end while we got some very welcome hot food. The condition he was in made me very glad I decided to tap out when I did!
Despite feeling like I made the right decision on the day I’m still convinced I could have completed the ride on the same day and in different circumstances. If I’d dressed more appropriately for the weather* and if I’d been riding my own ride instead of part of an organised event, I would have felt considerably less pressure, wouldn’t have been thinking about marshals and volunteers out in the shitty weather and waiting for me to finish. I would also have been able to ride at my own pace and stop for food when it felt right for me. It wouldn’t have been a pretty ride and I would have been very slow but I think I might have been able to make it. Also, it’s hard to DNF when you have to make your own way home! Saying all that, it’s easy to make that statement sitting at home!
*despite making the correct decision to wear my fully waterproof jacket and fit my rear mudguard I somehow decided to ride in shorts and short finger gloves and not use my front mudguard! In my defence the forecasted temperatures were borderline for tights but I totally forgot to allow for the significant windchill and the effect of the constant rain.
I have ridden this route as part of a Club Sportive before but it was longer ago than I thought and it was a very different story that day.
I really don’t know how I managed that average!
My condition in 2016 was very different compared to 2025. As well as having 9 years less on my clock and being at least 10kg lighter, I had a lot of training done. In the 12 months leading up to the Sportive I’d ridden just over 7,500km and completed a lot of rides of 100km+. One of those was the Wicklow 200 which I completed in just under 8hrs 15min. I’m nowhere near that at the minute so I guess that’s my target set for the next 12 months 🤣 I’m definitely riding that route myself in the Spring too!
A shock to the system with a very wet 43km Club Spin at 9am with temperatures between 12 and 14°C – Spain 🇪🇸 is a distant memory already! 😭 At least it did give me a chance to road test my new Galibier Tourmalet 4 jacket – very impressed 👌
Unfortunately, tomorrow’s Club Sportive is a victim of the weather and has been postponed until September 14th. I should definitely be back to fitness after the holiday by that stage 🍻 💪🤣
I was going to start this blog update by saying I’ve neglected it quite a bit this year but to be honest I’ve found myself stepping away from all forms of social media and at the risk of sounding very pretentious, all forms of creativity. I’ve thought about blogging and YouTube quite a bit but the drive to put something in words or on film just hasn’t been there. I’ve also been less inclined to take and post photos this year which is a big change for me. The majority of photos that I have taken have stayed on my phone only.
Last year that would have worried me as over the last couple of years I’d been struggling mentally to get the motivation to get anything done. A large part of that was that I was desperately unhappy at work and that was affecting me mentally and bleeding into my daily life. The main symptom was an increasing lethargy and lack of drive to do anything.
Having changed jobs back in August last year I’ve now had a significant turnaround. 3 years of negativity will take some work to reverse completely but I’m definitely feeling much better than I did this time last year. I’m putting the lack of social media interaction down to the fact that I’m too busy enjoying the moment to be able to document it or even feel the need to.
Cycling
One of the very first changes was a renewed interest in cycling. I hadn’t turned a pedal in over 12 months when I started back briefly in April 2024 with a spurt of 5 short rides over a 3 week period.
Self motivation was desperately lacking though and I stopped again until September following a good start to my new job. I had a few solo short spins again before reconnecting with the Club and joining the Saturday morning Stabiliser Group in mid-October for my first Club spin since February 2023!
Very quickly this became a regular Saturday fixture and I was hitting the 50km marker by the end of October having originally thought that it would be a good aim for the end of the year!
This year, despite a week here and there off the bike, I’ve made cycling a regular activity again and I’m enjoying it too. I’ve increased my distance to completing at least 100km most weeks and hitting the 100km marker at the really enjoyable Donegal Bay Sportive at Easter when a big group from the Club did various routes with many of the Stabiliser beginners completing 50km for the first time also.
For the May Bank Holiday there was an organised group spin from Ballybofey to Buncrana with the option to join depending on the distance you wanted to cycle. I joined in Raphoe for just shy of 90km.
The Club then rounded off the Summer with a fun day on Saturday last week. We bussed to Errigal and did a summit walk followed by dinner and drinks in Lettermacaward before returning to Ballybofey and more drinks before heading home at a very late (for me!) 1am. A great day of fun and laughter and a good physical challenge that was highly enjoyable.
In the last couple of years I’ve struggled to gel with the Club. It’s been mostly my own fault, being in a bad mindset and finding it difficult to connect with the other members, despite knowing some of them for a few years. Thankfully this year has been very different.
I’m not setting any massive records for the year but so far I’ve managed to clock up 2,650km for the year. It’s not a huge amount but considering 4-4,500km is average for me, that my biggest year was 8,000km and the combined total of 2022,2023 and 2024 was slightly over 2,400km I’m doing pretty well for 2025!
On Sunday the Club is running a Sportive again. There are two routes, 62km and 135km, and I’m planning for the longer route. I’ve been doing steady mileage over the last few weeks including two longer rides of 90km and 110km. I’m feeling in a good place for 135km but I’m currently in Spain for a very lazy family holiday and not sure how that will affect my fitness. We’re back home on Friday so I’ll take a short leg loosening spin on Saturday to see if that helps.
Increasing my distance like this and the subsequent increased fitness, has brought back a hunger for Audax. I’ve stayed in all the Audax Ireland WhatsApp groups so I haven’t really lost touch but it’s taken until now to really consider the daunting 200km distance once again.
The RRTY challenge (1 x 200km Audax event per month for 12 consecutive months) has had a new version launched for 2025 called RRTY 100. Basically it’s an introductory challenge for those looking to get into full-on Audax and consists of 1 x 100km Audax event per month for 12 months. I’m thinking of using that as a pathway back to Audax similar to how I used the Club Stabiliser Group to get me back cycling regularly. I’m not setting any great targets for next year but seeing as 2015 was my first ever Audax I’d quite like to get one done before the end of the year and I’m seriously considering giving the Four Provinces Challenge (see the link above) a go in 2026 as I did it previously in 2016.
To get the RRTY 100 completed I’m going to have to get at least one route published for Donegal. The nearest is currently in Sligo and the only one I’m currently aware of in development is a massive 1600m of climbing in 106km!
Hillwalking & Camping
My last solo hillwalk was in The Sperrins at Banagher Glen in the last of the Winter snow on 11th January. I’d earmarked that route for a period of snow and just managed to time it right although I did have a mild panic at the car park, deep in the Glen, when I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get the car back back out in the compacted snow!
I haven’t given up on hillwalking though as I’ve been active with the Bluestack Ramblers Walking Club this year, completing 8 group walks from January to June with 3 in June alone. There were some great walks in there with Knockalla and the Aghlas definitely being my favourites.
I didn’t get out at all during July or August as the walks weren’t as interesting and I was busy with jobs around the house and cycling. As my cycling mileage increased my free time for hillwalking decreased and, if I’m being honest, I struggled to get enough fitness for cycling and hillwalking in the same weekend! However, I have two of interest in September that I’d like to do. They’re on the 7th and 14th which will hopefully allow me a chance to get an Audax 100 completed later in September to get the RRTY 100 started.
Another victim of cycling and the lack of solo hiking has been camping. Despite buying two new tents in the last 12 months my last wild camp was in April 2024 ! I simply haven’t had the time to give up two days for an overnighter and have had too many other things I wanted to do instead. I would like to get out and do something in the Bluestacks before the end of the year though, preferably in September or October. If nothing else I need to try out my new 2 person tent I bought specifically for Spring and Autumn camping! It was my Xmas present last year but I haven’t even managed to get it out of the box for a test pitch…
Of all my social media posting it’s YouTube that has taken the biggest hit this year. My last video release was in November last year. I did record my hike in Banagher Glen that I mentioned above, but somehow haven’t had the time or drive to get it edited and published. I’ve given it a go a couple of times and have it about 50% done so I probably will finish it eventually. However, I wasn’t really in a filming mood that day and it’s a bit disjointed. It could be a feeling that it’s not that great that’s as much to blame as lack of time for not getting it finished. I do enjoy filming and editing for YouTube though so I do see myself getting back to it, possibly with a return to solo hiking and camping but I’d like to start adding some cycling content also. That will involve some solo cycling as I don’t like to film with groups so might kick in if I start into Audax preparation…
More to come…
This is already too long so I’ll add the rest in the next couple of days.
In the parlance of any decent influencer I started my barefoot journey just over a year ago now. While my Plantar Fasciitis (PF) hasn’t gone away completely it definitely has improved. In the last couple of months I’ve gone full barefoot with all my shoes now in a zero drop, minimalist style with a proper vivobarefoot hiking boot being the latest addition.
While my feet haven’t yet developed the typical full-on toe spread associated with barefoot shoes they have definitely changed shape and are now considerably wider.
Starting back to cycling at the beginning of September it soon became very clear that my snug, narrow cycling shoes were now in serious need of replacement. It also became clear that wide cycling shoes aren’t that common which surprised me. Sidi seem to be the main brand specialising in wide fitting cycling shoes but they’re a lot more expensive than I wanted to be spending!
nice shoes but averaging out at €200+
My first port of call was Amazon for a cheap option.
ARTVEP generic chinese brand of choice
I quite liked these. They were comfortable and looked nice. However, the soft sole meant there was too much flex and I could feel the cleats through the sole. Not a problem for a beginner but anything over 40km and I could see these causing foot ache. The soles are set up for MTB or road cleats with permanently attached receivers for the MTB cleat screws. However, these are mobile when wearing road cleats meaning I could hear them rattling when peddling fast. Finally, I felt the quality of the upper was too cheap with a soft leather look PU material that would damage quite easily. I tried them for one ride but then sent them back. Amazon’s return policy being the main reason I was happy to give these a trial.
I liked these. The fit was pretty good and I liked the feel of the materials and the stiffness of the sole. The single boa fastener was easy to use and held the tension nicely but it was still a bit narrow in the toebox. For the cost I wanted something more comfortable.
The third and final pair I tried came to me even before I picked up the Decathlon shoes. I’d been trying to think of options and remembered that Paul had recently bought a pair of gravel/MTB shoes from Planet X. A quick browse of the site had two options. I was really drawn to the Carnac Prove but the tab at the front really put me off
the black option had a white closure tab at the front 🤢
I’ve been wearing these for a good few weeks now and have completed a number of 50K+ rides and I’m finding them very good. They’re not perfect and I don’t know how I’d get on with them on a long day but I’m happy with them. The Boa laces work well although they do seem to lose a tiny bit of tension after 40K. Not enough to cause issues but I haven’t been able to check if they do actually loosen as I’ve been wearing overshoes on each ride. I’m getting a couple of hot spots on both feet but I think that may be how I have the cleats set up rather than the shoes themselves combined with the long time I was off cycling. The sole is nice and stiff and they feel good so I think I’ve found the winners. If I ever get back to long distance Audax cycling then I might consider looking at Sidi again but for now these will do the job.
Starting my new job at the end of August came with an unexpected seven days of annual leave to use before the end of the year. Four of these are required for my first Xmas off since 2012 leaving three to be used elsewhere. I used one to make the Halloween Bank Holiday into a four-day weekend and used the other two this weekend to do the same.
My Friday off coincided with a friend Gary’s suggestion to attend a Mountaineering Ireland event in Dublin on Thursday evening to hear Demort Somers speak before being presented with the annual Lynam Award for his contribution to Irish Mountaineering. Dermot was part of the 1993 expedition which saw the first Irish person reach the summit of Everest. Although he spoke only a little about Everest he was very entertaining. I’m not a climber in any sense but it coincided nicely with a podcast I’ve been listening to in the last few weeks.
Gary and myself were very kindly hosted for the night by Miriam, another friend. She attended the event with us and our plan was to go for a day hike in the Wicklow Mountains on Friday. However, a low cloud forecast required a change of plans and we headed for the Dublin Mountains instead and visited a place I’ve been interested in visiting for a long time
Montpelier Hill (Irish: Cnoc Montpelier) is a 383-metre hill in County Dublin, Ireland.It is topped by the Hell Fire Club, the popular name given to the ruined building. This building – an occasional summer residence built in around 1725 by William Conolly – was originally called Mount Pelier and since its construction the hill has also gone by the same name.
Members of the Irish Hell Fire Club, which was active in the years 1735 to 1741, used Mount Pelier summer residence as a meeting place. Stories of wild behaviour and debauchery and occult practices and demonic manifestations have become part of the local lore over the years.
All of this was fuelled by possibly the best ever breakfast I’ve had, supplied by the East Village Coffee Shop in Clondalkin.
Close by the building at the summit there was a trig pillar which I dutifully tapped. Sadly it has been vandalised over the years with all the metalwork removed but the concrete pillar is still in decent shape.
Gary was a geocacher at one time and between the two of us we made a short diversion to grab a nearby cache that was close to the path, making for a trilogy of lists that got ticked off in one short visit.
Following a short diversion into a very picturesque Massey Estate we headed for Timbertrove which according to Miriam, has the best scones in Ireland. They are certainly among the biggest I’ve ever seen anyway!
One thing for sure, I didn’t go hungry on my mini trip to Dublin!
Thursday Evening Street Pizza
Saturday morning saw me joining the Club Stabiliser Group for the weekly ride. That’s six weeks out with this group now which is becoming a really good and very enjoyable routine again. Also my 5th ride over 50km which I didn’t expect to be coming close to this soon after starting cycling again at the beginning of September.
Coffee Stop
Sunday afternoon it was my turn to look after my Great Aunt Ruby while Mum and Dad had a few hours to themselves. I’ve spoken here about Ruby before but she is now the oldest living person in Ireland and it’s an honour to be able to spend time with her like this. Unsurprisingly, she is not the same lady at the end of the year that she was at the beginning but she still has moments to make me laugh.
NYE 2023
Today I had planned to cycle in the morning but Winter has come rushing in late but with a wicked bite. Temperatures hovering just above freezing created a fog thick enough to make it unsafe that didn’t lift until well after noon. By that stage I was too lazy, was settled in with the heating on and a really good book (The Reckoningby Jane Casey) with a few episodes of Justified to break up the day.
There’s something in me that tends to see days like today as a waste but I managed to ease the “guilt” with a bit of housework in the afternoon. Going back to work tomorrow I may appreciate the rest better in the morning.
Four days definitely is a good long weekend but it has felt a good bit longer in a positive way.
My 3rd week out with the Club Stabiliser Group for beginners or anyone returning to cycling after a long break. Very pleased to get through the 50km marker already and to feel my cycling legs starting to come back 🚴
The one thing I love about this time of year is being able to see the sunrise and sunset in the same day. Sunrise was from the car on my way to work but sunrise was on the bike. I was treated to this beautiful view from Liscooley Bridge on my way home 😍
garmin link – actually crossed the border this time!
niall harran 