A Long Bike Ride to Glendalough

The round tower at Glendalough

Last Sunday my long bike ride for the week too me to the valley of the two lakes (Gleann Da Locha). It's a monastery site from the 6th century founded by St. Kevin. The English destroyed it in the 14th century, but it remained an important site, not least because of a comment by a pope proclaiming that seven visits to Glendalough are  equivalent to one to Rome. I have been to each once so far ;-)
As usual on these rides, I did not really have time to visit and sightsee. But this is one of the main attractions in Ireland and I intend to come back with a real camera and without being all sweaty and limping.

The route there was very pretty, but it was a very hard ride for me: 95.5 miles total. I knew it would be hard and tried to take it easy going up, but the distance and the strong winds wore me out. The route I took wasn't exactly the one I had planed. Google maps lied to me. South of Tallaght (a suburb in the South of Dublin) on my way to Ballinascorney I ended up going up a very, very steep hill for about half a mile, just to be greeted by a gate and a road that kind of just turned into a meadow. My body doesn't take this kind of nonsense very lightly!

My route last Sunday, including a steep dead end.

 I have six weeks left until my race. The terrain will be similar, but there will also be a time limit. No sightseeing and picture taking on that day! That, and the excitement of the race will help. The roads will also be better. Nevertheless, at this time I'm worried about not making the time cut-off for the bike.

Pretty roads, but not very nice for a road bike.

I'll have ten hours for the 2.4-mile swim and the 56-mile bike ride. I should be out of the water and through the first transition in under 1:20, but that leaves me with about eight and a half hours for the 112-mile bike. At this time I'm very worried about that. And, of course I can't go all out and give it everything I have, because there is a marathon to jog/walk/limp after that.

Unfortunately, that's how I run and bike.

I'm doing OK with my run training, although I am a little slower than what my training plan says I should do. At the same time, especially the long runs, take quite a bit out of me. I think that is part of what slows down my bike rides. But moving between continents and starting a new job and getting sick and injured and traveling hasn't helped either. I'm catching up, but I have done much less than originally planed when I signed up for this last Summer.
And I have only six weeks to go. The good News is that next week is a recovery week. Then another 20-mile run and a 100-mile bike, and then start my taper.
My weekly training schedule right now looks like this:

Monday		60-minute spin, long swim
Tuesday		Bike
Wednesday		Long run
Thursday		60-minute spin, sprint swim
Friday		Easy run
Saturday		Long bike
Sunday		Tempo run

I have not been able to follow this completly, and sometimes I have to switch things around a little, like last weekend when I did my long bike on Sunday because the weather was pretty bad on Saturday.
The distance and time of these sessions follow a four-week cycle, building up a little bit each week until the fourth week where your body (supposedly) recovers and builds muscles. Then it starts over beginning where you left of the week before the rest. Last week I did a 20-mile run and this week I had to do only 16 miles for my long run (because I am getting closer to the race). Next week is recovery with the total distance for the week only 26 miles spread over three runs. Then back up to another 20 miler and a total of 34 miles for the week and then build down towards the race. I got this plan from a running site and patterned the bike rides accordingly.

Let's hope I can finish the race!

Tonight it's an "easy" 9-mile run, and tomorrow a 70-mile bike. I plan to go to Powerscourt waterfall, at 400 feet the largest fall in Ireland. Last weekend on my way to Glendalough, I came across this one, which I think is the Glenmacnass waterfall just before Laragh.

It falls into this beautiful valley that opens up to Laragh where it meets the Glendalough valley (in the back to the right in the picture below).

The good thing about all this is that I can sit here, eat pizza and drink some wine without worrying that I gain weight. I burned three times that on this ride alone!
Here are a few more pictures from that ride. I probably wont take any tomorrow, so I can concentrate fully on training, but I am looking forward to when this is over and things become more normal again.

The Glendalough valley

The weather wasn't great, but the sun did come out a few times and it got warm on those uphills. Then back to cold and windy.

Near Sally Gap

I guess gap means pass. I went over Sally gap and the Wicklow gap on this ride.

Cute cars at Glendalough.

On the way up toward Wicklow gap, not far from Glendalough I came across this ruin.

From Wicklow gap it was supposed to be mostly downhill. But there was a strong, cold  wind in my face now, and along the Pollaphuca reservoir on the way back were some rollers that nearly killed my legs. By the time I had climbed the last hill before Ballinascorney I was exhausted. It was downhill from there into Dublin, but then another hour on a nice, flat bike path. Usually something to enjoy, but I was too beat.

After my shower I was drying my foot and saw my big toe sticking out between the towel folds. It seemed odd and on the wrong side of my foot. It took my a while to realize that I was looking at my left foot instead of my right.
After your body has been pumping blood into all of your muscles, but not your brain, all day long, thinking becomes a major chore.