Tunney's Blog

I have been getting back into the swing of running despite a golf ball sized lump on my knee cap and last week saw a good bit of mileage done. This, combined with killing myself on the computrainer riding a route mapped from the worst hills in Wicklow, and given my long run was done on bloody hilly terrain in the West of Ireland saw my legs pretty tired come Sunday night. Thankfully my fatigue was expected and this week is a recovery week. Nothing bike or nothing too tough this week with one exception – a fairly tough CT test set on Friday. Should be a very good baseline for power v HR through the power output range. The joy of erg files – no hiding.

14/09/09 161.8
21/09/09 162.4
25/09/09 160.4

At least the general trend is downwards. Ate alot of crap last week and drank more wine than I should have but I will get my diet clean some week.

Lasty week was a bad week for diet, a very very bad week. All stemmed from the Wednesday ngiht out I think, I ate so many jellies, bars of chocolate, muffins and even MacDonalds. All had to go somewhere and it shows up on the scales
162.4lbs up from 161.lbs, so I actually managed to put on weight last week. Nice.

Got out on the bike at the weekend, a very hilly course that was to be overgeared. 82km in four hours. Tough but the thing that made it so slow was the 10 metre visibilty and freezing fog, the descents were slower than the ascents! A nice long (relative to recent runs) on Sunday rounded off a reasonable weeks training.

Sweats, headache, nausea, aches and pains. I thought it was never going to end and I was never going to feel better. A craving for MacDonalds Haven’t felt as bad in a long time. This wine flu is an absolute killer. The longest Thursday in living memory. And I’m still suffering on Friday. Definitely not the path to be on to get to Austria in July.

For four years I worked in Clontarf and my bread and butter runs were done along the sea front and out Bull Island. Lots of very secluded places that you could “relieve yourself” if you were got short and urgently had to go. SO I suppose I never got into, or I’ve fallen out of, the habit of going before you leave for a run. However my new job is in the city centre and secluded locations are few and far betweena dn some of my lunch hour runs have been “interesting” to say the least. Being caught 20 minutes from the office absolutely busting is not pleasant. Not pleasant at all

What a weekend, it was great to be able to stick on shorts and a short sleeve jersey and ride in the sunshine. Got out for around five hours over the weekend in lovely Cavan. Quiet, well-surfaced roads, sunshine, what else could you ask for. Last week was an aerobic testing week so there was a little less apreciation of scenery and weather on Saturdays spin. As suspected there has been a substantial drop off in aerobic power generation since min-June, roughly 15%. Still it could have been worse. My gears were acting up funny during the ride and I spent a good bit tweaking them afterwards but they still weren’t right on Sunday’s spin despite my best efforts. I found out why about 500m from home when my rear mech cable snapped and left me in the 39×12 going up a rather steep hill to get home. Least I don’t have to try and figure out what is causing the problem now

My run aerobic test was also a good bit off June levels – about 15% again but this will come back more quickly that my biking power.

Still only 15% off AeT given the summer I’ve had isn’t too bad at all.

Cleaning out the house the other day I stumbled across some race photos from 2003/2004, Kilkee, Ballyronan all the races I loved(and still love), the sunshine in all of the photos reminded me of the fact that it was three years before I had to do a race in the rain. Sun tan from each and every triathlon. Admittedly the Stoneman duathlons in the Phoenix Park run by 3dtri were a different story. The photos also reminded me of how many good friends you make in the sport, the people in the photos from the early days, bar one or two, are the people that I talk to the most and interact with the most these days. They also showed my how much my body shape has changed, never mind the obvious lose (and regain) of the belly, but the size of my arms, shape of my back, size and make up of my legs, all very different these days. It would be great to get a season of racing of racing when the weather was as good as those early years. We can dream.

The photo is of myself and a friend in Ballyronan, we got out of the water together, rode together for the 40km (legally), ran together for 9.2km, then he dropped me. However he didn’t count on a sprint finish and I passed him on the line. Closest and most favorite finish ever.

A friend is back from Oz for a bit and I used to go riding with him alot. We used to be always fairly evenly matched. Headed out with him to do some hills on Sunday. Miserable weather and cold but the worst bit was getting absolutely kicked around on the hills, he’d get up the top, turn around go down to the bottom and and pick me back up on the way back up. Shameful. Got some decent riding in despite the shame and humilation. Still it was my fourth time on my bike since mid June so an a$$ kicking was always on the cards. Can’t wait to get back in shape.

After a good break from proper training and diet I’ve expanded a bit and now is the time to start the change from being Dave Tummy to Dave Tunney. Time to clean up the diet and trim down.
Weekly weigh-in is is 11st 10.4

My first week in a new job and I decided to try a lunch hour “run” yesterday. Its based just off Stephen’s Green so I picked out a route to take and was just going to go for it. Problem #1: I forgot my shorts. Choices were either (a)wuss out (b) run in cycling shorts. I went with (b) and hoped to god that no one would see me that I worked with or that I knew. Didn’t happen and of course I bumped into my new colleagues. Oh well – there goes all credibility.