Donald, you are an IRONMAN!

Saturday 19th May 2012

Cycling
06:09:50 – 92.09 Miles (14.90 MPH / HR Zone 1 / 70% Max / Cadence 80rpm)

This was my biggest ride to date and it was a long time to be out on the bike.

My aim was to do 90 miles in 6hrs, meaning an average pace of 15MPH.  The good news is that I want through 90 miles in about 5H59mins.  This was brilliant and the only reason the average dropped a bit was the hellish hill back up home for nearly 2 miles - just what I didn't need at the end of a long ride.

 

I have to say it was pretty tough going along the way at times.  I cycled over to East Belfast and cycled up the Craigantlet Hill behind Stormont and then over to Bangor.  That is the first time I have cycled up Craigantlet and IT IS A BITCH!  Not particularly long - probably only about a mile but it is steep.

 

Once through that I wound my way round the coast from Bangor to Portaferry - stopping for a 5 minute break and food top up and the back along the coast (on the other side of the peninsula) to Newtownards.

 

 

I had a few very dark moments along this stretch (about 20 miles) as I was straight in to a stiff wind and it took its toll on me - I would have gladly swapped places and been home rather than battling along on the bike.

Once in to Ards I had the big hill out of Ards back to Belfast - it looked awful but actually it was OK and felt pretty good riding up it.

 

Once in to Belfast it was my usual commute route home.

 

On the whole I am delighted that this is both the longest distance and time in the saddle that I have had.

 

Saturday night was great as my friend Donald Smith was competing in Ironman Lanzarote - one of the toughest Ironman events in the world and we (Me, Keara, Erin and Ben) were able to track him live and even watch the finish line live and see him cross it at 15H 51Mins. It was great to see him doing it and it really got our collective juices going for my event in just 7 weeks time- aarrrgh.

This was an amazing achievement and he deserves the title of Ironman!

 

I was supposed to do a long run Sunday, but given the Half Ironman last weekend, I decided to skip it and give myself another little bit of recovery time.  Next week is back to normal with all sessions back on again and the hours and mileage cranking up again.