Just for the hell of it, I tried the exercise bike in the station gym. I was hoping to get a sense of heart rate thresholds. I did a warm-up for 20 minutes, then pushed it for 5, then eased back for 2, and then went again, repeating that 5 minute burst 4 times in … More Something’s leaking…
Can you juggle? I can juggle. Well, I wouldn’t get a job in a circus or anything, but I can take three roughly spherical objects and do a few things with them, other than just hold them or drop them on the floor. I remember in my post-student days in flats watching folks juggling and … More Juggling (in the pool)
My favourite place to run is in St. Catherine’s Park in Leixlip. It’s right on my doorstep, so it suits me, whether I’m on call or not. But it also has a lot of variety for a park, with plenty of hills of differing difficulty and length, open flat spaces, good footpaths, and wooded areas. … More Pace and tempo training
Ear worms. They can be dreadful little beasties. The programme started yesterday, and not without a few hiccoughs. I was busy in the office and forgot the time, so missed out on the 12.45 swim in the local pool. Then berated myself and promptly re-engaged with work only to realise it was nearly 5 o’clock … More “I write the songs, I write the songs…”
Today is technically the first day of the new programme. The training plan is from the same place as the Olympic: 220 Triathlon. Here’s the link. It’s for the Half Ironman up in the Ards Peninsula at the end of September. I found the last one worked out reasonably well, and to be honest, I have … More Getting with the programme
There now follows a particularly non-scientific post about swimming, so if technical swimming stuff really is your thing, then politely look away now. One of the things that triathlon throws up, for new folks like me, is that I really don’t know an awful lot about any of the disciplines. Or, put another way, when you find … More The S stroke
There is one companion you will always have on a cycle in Ireland. I am not talking about yourself, the cyclist. This isn’t an existentialist blog as such. More à la carte than Descartes. Nor are we talking about the bike. If you go out for a cycle and discover that you have left your bike … More C’est le vent, Betty
Runners. Can’t run without ’em. Well, I guess some folks do. There’s not much to say about runners other than perhaps do try and spend a little more on them than you would like. The pair on the right are your typical budget runner which you can pick up in most sport stores for about … More Runners
There is no way around it. You need a bike to do a triathlon. What you don’t need is a full carbon frame bike worth five grand if you can only manage 20k in about an hour. Nothing wrong with that sort of pace, before you start getting sniffy. It’s just that an old steel … More Biking on a budget
Yesterday was just too nice to sit at home, and as I was off on my roster, S and I decided a swim was in order. We had a few options. One was to head to Howth, and a nice little cove we have swam at before near the Martello Tower. The other option was to head … More It’s a long way to… Mullingar
unironedman 