Four hours and 100km around North Cork- a statement of my intent for 2013. Beautiful sunny crisp cold Winter’s morning. Now I’m snoozing in front of a wood stove after a hot bowl of stew. I have great intentions for the New Year as usual. They seem similar to previous years and thus likely to yield the same result. That is “close but no cigar”. I will therefore give it more thought and publish my list in the coming days or weeks
20 weeks to go to Dartmoor classic
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,400 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Christmas morning up at 06:30 for the drive home and then straight on the bike without saying hello to anyone. The mission? Cycle 60km to bring my total for 2012 to 8000km.
Day was crisp and sunny but it was clear that it would rain soon. A few cyclist passed as I was getting my bike off the roof.
Beautiful morning around the burren. Would have been perfect if I hadn’t left my overshoes in Cork. Saw Gulls, Robins, swans, geese and crows. Passed people going to Christmas mass, children playing with new toys and assisted a fellow cyclist with chain problems
One o’clock, in the door, gifts in hand and frozen blocks for feet. 63 km- Total 2012 8003km
The new season starts here. The goal for the year is Goal medal time in the Dartmoor Classic.
Short term Goal: Stop eating Chips
Medium term Goal: Weight 90Kg or below on New Years eve
Well another year over. Had good fun again this year. Looking at my training log I was initially dispondant. There didn’t seem to be any great improvement. I then noticed that my top five times on my two main training routes were all 2012. Reckon I’m improving all the time. I am determined to give Dartmoor a proper rattle next year. I have two thoughts
1> I was much stronger after les etapes so I reckon a week in the mountains in April or May is needed.
2> Not putting on weight during the winter is crucial to getting to optimum weight. Gotta lose my beer belly
Got up at 7am for one last attempt at the Massrock record this season. Weather perfect. Sunny, no clouds, no wind, no rain and dry roads. Got to the foot of Massrock faster than ever before (9 secs ahead) but fell away after that. Lost 1 minute on the mountain and two on the short stretch into Freemount. Finished in 2hrs 39min. Third fastest time. Don’t know why I dropped away after such a good start
Stopped in Macroom on my way home and found this on the wall of the Hotel bar
Reckon I’ll have my hearse go around the Bearra peninsula and make my friends and family walk the 160Km behind 😉
The Bearra peninsula is The most beautiful place to cycle in the word! 160Km of bliss. Left Glengarriff in the morning sunshine and headed up the Caha pass. Other cyclists were friendly and the day past quickly. I worked hard on the flat but dropped back on the climbs. Coming down from the Healy pass I tired to rejoin the group that dropped me on the climb. They were a group of ten and I was on my own into the wind. 20Km to go I saw them ahead (300m), 17Km and could hear them (70m), 15Km to go and I plan to close the gap with 10Km to go and maybe leave them behind me. I get out of the saddle and stomp for 1 minute (30m). Head down. I push harder- look up (20m). I decide to rest and try to close the gap later 11Km to go. There is no later. The road climbs and they disappear ahead of me. I do not see them again. I catch and pass some Southside Wheely wheelers but in truth I am not stronger than them. They are nursing one of their number home. This was the most enjoyable Irish sportif of the year and maybe the toughest
This cycling lark is not all hardship. A beautiful sunny day spent up in the Wicklow mountains. A short spin up the Sally gap followed by a slow spin down to Laragh where Scones and jam were waiting. Off to the All Ireland final tomorrow- Galaimh Abu
Beautiful sunny Wednesday morning. Today would be the day I would set a new record for the 76Km Massrock route. I ate lunch at noon and managed to finish work on time. I headed down the road. All went well until I arrived in Dromcollagher. I got delayed behind ‘Mr Binman’ and my 42 sec lead was down to 6 secs. ‘Nevermind’ I said to myself ‘What difference 30 secs?’. What difference indeed. After 2 hrs and 36 mins I finished 25 secs slower than the record!
Confessions of a Velophile 