Tunney's blog

The weekend was a disaster for a number of reasons. Culmulating in an attempt at an hour run on Saturday that I knew I was in trouble for after 5 minutes. A strange tightness, a slight burning feeling in my chest. “HTFU”. I ran on, out and back loop. 15 minutes later I remembered the one of two times before in my life I had felt this – 20-30 minutes before an asthma attack. I turned for home immediately. I wondered would I make it. I did. Anyways that wrote off the day.

Sunday was 16 weeks to Roth and I weighed myself, 12 stone 1. Race weight is 10st 8. A weight I don’t feel obsese at is 11st 6. Annoyed I decided to organise a cycle OUTSIDE for the Monday. Got four takers. mloc, bambatta, mr tango and a club mate. Plan was for club mate to be at mine at 0825, meet bambatta at 0845 in the Phoenix park and the other two at 0915 at Avoca on the N7.

0825 came and went. Didn’t stress too much as had planned using the 5&5 rule. 0835 and no sign of club mate, no text, no call, his phone off. Texted everyone else, hung on another 15 minutes and then said “fvck him”. TT’ed to the park, massive head wind. Met bambatta. TT’ed to Avoca. Firstly Mr Tango can go fvck himself if he thinks we are using Avoca as a regular meeting point. 4km for him. 32km for me. We are going back to Templeogue Bridge. The head wind was savage. My mood not helped with the knowledge that we were riding at 50 watts above my FTP and 50 watts below bambatas. Noticeable from the one side conversation, he was also only out for a recovery ride. Met mloc and Mr Tango, 1:05 riding and 32km, fvcked.com

On to the first hill of the day, a cheeeky one that I hadn’t done in years. Bambatta rode off, not sure he noticed the hill. I told myself I was sticking to his wheel even if it killed me. That lasted 20 metres. Up the top and down, at this stage I suspected that on the next hill I may be last up. After the descent I suspected something else. The rest were bad descenders. Some woeful, some just not at the same level as their ascending. Almost suggested stopping at a bike shop to get spare brake blocks.

Anyways onto Sally Gap. A tailwind. Given that the reason Mr Tango beat me up the Gap the last time was down to my inability to generate power at low torque I thought happy days. Turns out that was a lie. But anyways I skip ahead. Base of the climb I went hard. Except I didn’t my going hard is now not that hard and Mr Tango caught me instantly. He then rode away, I tried to stay with him and get back on his wheel but failed. The sound of mloc and bambatta riding 5 minutes behind me chatting away happy out while I bust a gut did little for the mood either. I may not have been last up the hill but I was the weakest link.

Rode home, had lunch. Motivation back. Three more names on my hit list.

Plan for this morning was a turbo. Aoibhe (2) decided that last night she wanted to sleep with Daddy. “Daddy UP, Daddy UP. Daddy mommy night night” 10pm to 3am
5am alarm ignored.

50 minute run at lunch was nice though. Work night tonight. Plus one of my advisors(LCD) has vetoed evening sessions until 12 weeks out.

I’m running 4:50 easy per km. Could knock out a sub 20 5km but not much better.
I’m swimming 1:50 easy per 100m. Could knock out a 6:40 400m short course TT.
I’m riding 180 watts at IM pace.
I’m 12 stone 1 pound.

Goal for April is go get to 4:45 per km easy running. 1:45 easy per 100m swimming and a 6:30 400m short course TT. 190 watts at IM pace and get to 11st 10. Thems the goals.

I got a USE Exposure joystick light in 2008. Great light. Used it as my main light for a while and now its used as main commuter and spot on night rides.

It died and was out of warranty a while back. I sent it back to Exposure who repaired it free of charge. Then they however shipped it to the wrong address 12 days ago (Dublin, UK rather than Dublin, Ireland despite my return address having been specified as Ireland). So its now lost in Heathrow for a while.

They are shipping out a 2010 or 2011 model to me as a loaner, a loaner that I may get to keep if the 2008 makes its way back to them and they feel nice.

Anyways no spot for tonights ride to Cavan however there is this
A tail wind

A fairly bad week and weekend in all regards.
Training – non existant.
Health – not fantastic.
Motivation – none.

A productive trip to AK in Bray to get new runners for myself and herself was followed by a walk on the beach. (Note to self: Bray is a bit of a kip.) The last 9 months was summed up by herself – “You’d never have entered Roth if you knew what was going to happen, if you’d known how tough September to now was going to be.” And she was right.

Woke up for my swim yesterday morning brutally hungover. I cursed my alcoholism and went back to sleep cursing myself. Woke some time later style hung over and cursed myself some more as i dragged my ass out of bed for work. Some time later I realised that I hadn’t actually been drinking the night before. That I’d actually gone to bed early to be fresh and rested. This was not good.

Struggled in work, tried a run at lunch and cramped all over. Miserable form and still felt hungover. A hangover is fine when you’ve been drinking, not when you haven’t been.

So I knew on the way up to the Man with The Tan that I was in trouble. The cramps on yesterdays run and swim. The cramps at lunch. Generally feeling sh1t. I knew that I would seem far worse that I was pre illness and I resigned myself to needing another session next week. What I hadn’t expected was that he’d barely be able to work on my. I was hopping off the table. Worse than ever. Worse than when he worked on me after the bus. Had to basically call it quits as he couldn’t do what needed to be done. “Its either a side effect of the anti-botics or a viral infection Dave” he told me. I called into the local chemist, JJ sound bloke, and asked the name of them and side effects. “None David, you’ve had it loads of times”. So viral infection then. Non-specific symptoms, just ride it out.

C0ck