training and donations update for TICK TOCK

Its been 2 weeks since i updated this diary/ blog for my training and donations efforts. Week 29 (week before last) wasnt an amazing week. It was meant to be an 8.5 hour training week with 4 of those as a long bike ride on the Sunday, but i went to a party on the Saturday night, had a few too many beers and woke up in no state to ride anywhere! So WEEK 29 was 3hr30m - nuff said.


This week (WEEK 30, 13 weeks to go) was a better week for training. In fact, it felt like all i done was training, working and sleeping. Managed to fit in a nice night out in Mannheim on Saturday night for dinner and drinks without going overboard and feeling rough the next day, so went out for a mammoth bike ride on Sunday into the Odenwald area of hills behing Heidelberg. The sun was shining and it was a lovely day. The route i chose was also beautiful but had a monster hill in the middle of it! If you click on the below link for Sundays training, you will see the elevation profile went from under 100M to over 440m in a fairly short distance. The payoff was the downhill on the other side which was great fun and I hit over 62kmh at one point. ;) The end KM for the ride was 79.5 km which was the longest I have ever done in one session and i needed an ice bath to cool the legs afterwards! Some pics of the ride:

DONATIONS - The last 2 weeks have been a bit slow. Only Eileen Mannion has sent money in since my last update (Thanks Eils!), but there is still plenty time and still plenty of people out there that i know will donate to this cause. We also have the fund raising buckets for the Rathmore and Labour Club coming soon and anyone reading this that wants to donate can hit the purple button top right to do so. Thanks.
Also, the Addaction race pack arrived this week so got my t shirt etc this week.

Training stats:
Monday: 55 minute run
Tuesday: PM - evening bike ride, 1hr 20
Wednesday: Late home, then 10KM fast tempo. 1hr 01
Thursday: AM bike session: 0H53m
Friday: late home, then 14km run 1hr27min. VERY HOT @ 32C at 2030 at night!
Saturday: no training
Sunday: 79.5km hilly ride, 3hr43 mins - http://connect.garmin.com/player/204287348
TOTAL: 8hrs 23 mins

Weigh in: 89.8 (finally under 90kgs... :)

NOTE: need more donations!

Training and donation update - WEEK 28 (15 weeks to go)

Another decent training week this week.

Managed to chalk up almost 7 hours mostly running. Made a massive cock up on Wednesday morning though! I stepped out early morning for a 12k run and had in my head that i wanted to try out a new circuit which involved running up to a bridge about 6km away, crossing it, running back the other side of the river and crossing back at another crossing, to total 12k. What I didn't realize what that on the other side the riverbank scoots off in another direction and i was channeled into a small town. I then tried to make my way back to the riverbank route but it all went a bit wrong and long story short is that the 12k morning run ended up over 22km! Didn't eat anything before i left the house either, so was pretty knackered when I got home, but Michelle had some food waiting for me, fair play to her.

Friday night I stopped in the Pfalz area on the way home from work and had a good 8km hill run which was nice, and today i found another really cool new place called Ramsen that had an awesome 11km trail run that i ran around a small lake and forest. I am really liking finding these new places to explore in the area around where we live. You have to drive approx 30-40 mins to get there but its worth it. Here are some pics from today:

 After my run Michelle and Klaus came out for lunch and we ate at the Hotel on the lake which was very nice. On the lake there were rowing boats to rent and a German couple were getting into the boat, then the man fell in! It was very hard not to laugh out loud but the dude was not smiling so we kept quiet. He just got into the boat all soaked and rowed off as if nothing happened!
Bought a new running rucksack with water bladder on Saturday which is great. only 20 euro too!

DONATIONS - had some more donations this week! Thanks this week to Sarah Perris, Sheila Mitham, Ali Bari, Bridget Keady, Sweetcorn in Aus, Tony Solimeno and Sandra Young! The amount raised so far is now GBP 626.00! Going well but we still need more! We will be making donation forms to put in the Rathmore and Labor Club soon for those that don't get online.

Training stats:

Monday: REST
Tuesday: 1Hr 15 mins Bike ride on the Altrip route. Fast and hard.
Wednesday: 22.5km run in the AM. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/199533127
Thursday: Missed the AM run, PM swam 1200m after work
Friday: 8KM hill run in the Pfalz after work
Saturday: no training, went out in Mannheim in the evening for food and drinks
Sunday: 1hr 30 mins trail running in Ramsen. Very nice! http://connect.garmin.com/activity/199533206

Total - 6 hours 53 mins
Weigh in - 91.5
Knee and feet all good.

Training and donation update - WEEK 27 (16 weeks to go)

This weeks training was pretty good. Only had 5hr 30 on the plan, and managed to do 6hr.13 so happy with that.. Didnt get out Monday or Tuesday due to work, but Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat and today (Sun) i managed to squeeze it all in. Worth noting was the 10k race that James and I participated in on the Ramstein US Air Force Base in Germany. It was to raise money for a soldier that was a friend of a friend. He has a rare blood cancer and so there have been fund raising events to raise money for the family. Approx 100 or so people attended the race and all paid entry fees that went to the cause.
The race was around the air field and it was a nice warm day. This base is huge though! There are nearly 35,000 people working on it so you can imagine the size. Anyway, i ran my best ever 10km time at 55.45! Thats nearly 4 mins off my previous record so i was well happy with that! We got T shirts made with the logo for our new business to wear at the race too - here is James sporting one of the Shirts!

On the way home i stopped in "The Pfalz" which is the Germany wine growing region and went for a 5km hill run. As luck would have it i came across a lovely restaurant in the forest with possibly the nicest beer garden in the country!

Donations for the charity is up to GBP 491 this week, thanks for some donations from people. Still a long way to go, but there is 16 weeks left till the Marathon in Dublin so i am sure we will get to the target. There are plenty of people out there still to donate! 

STATS:

Monday - x

Tuesday - x

Wednesday - 40 min run before work

Thursday - 40 min run before work

Friday - 16km ride before work and 2000m swim after work.

Saturday , 10km race, then 5km hill run in Isenach

Sunday, 1200m swim and 1 hour bike ride.

Total - 6 Hours 13 minutes.

Notes - knee and feet ok. 

weigh in - 92.1

Another busy work week ahead setting up our new business but no worries, there are 24 hours in the day! 

Tick Tock Tommy

Week 26,
well i was meant to do a 10 hour training session this week but work keeps getting in the way. i am getting up at 0600 but still cant seem to fit it all in. will aim to work harder at it next week. I  ended up with 7 hours including a big feckin run today!! very happy with that but have not lost any weight this month.
More importantly, this week i decided to commit to a charity to raise money in memory of my ole mate Tommy. This is what its all about after all. I have chosen Addaction, and hope to raise 2 grand for Dublin Marathon and 2 Grand for London next year. I am amazed that in the short space of a few days, i already have donations from John, Scott, Mich, Lea from Cov, Tim Collins, Kathy collins, Mary Munnelly, Nina and Nico! Thanks to you all for your efforts. i will keep running in memory of Tick Tock!