My Season In Pictures.

 

As the season is over, and races are done and dusted, I’ve decided to go through my season with pictures for something different.

It all started in January when I bought my new bike. Happy as Larry that day 🙂

I went to inspired cycling for a bike set up which was fantastic.

 

All winter/spring, it was cyle, cycle, cycle with Chris and Shane mostly.

The 1st race of the year was the Omagh half marathon. 1hr 35mins. Happy concidering we cycled 40 miles before hand to get there. haha

Took part in a few parkruns in portrush and derry. My 5k PB still stands at 19mins 58 seconds.

The 1st tri of the season was the Liam Ball. Finish time was 1hr 14mins.

Mad as this may sound, I ran the Belfast marathon the very next day, finishing in 3hrs 35mins. Very happy with that! Heres me and my ‘wee’ 😉 cousin Eddie and our proud mums.

Next up was the Roe Valley tri, I finished with a time of 1hr 13mins. Again, very pleased.

Outdoor swimming then started, the creggan ressie was visited on many occasions.

Evening cycling was also starting as the summer nights came in, Darrel and Keith even made it out a few times 😉

The half Ironman distance was next, 5hrs 10mins for the correct distance. Stupidly they had an extra mile to ruin at the end which pissed me off, A LOT.

The Olympic distance tri in Portrush was next, Here are 3 happy men at the finish line, me, Tommy and Roger. My time was 2hrs 22mins, over the moon.

The summer had finally arrived and I got many many long cycles (with buns and coffee stops) in with Gerard, good times!

Then the big 1, the Ironman distance in July. Here me and Stevie checkout transition, and many happy faces welcomed me at the finish. My finished time was 12hrs 18mins, this was such a good race, I was a very happy man that day!

A night time swim was then next bit of fun I had. Here are a few MAMILs eager as ever.

Then I got to give something back to the sport and helped out with our clubs junior tri.

The Belfast half marathon was my last race of the year, PB 1hr 34mins. Very very happy. Here I am with Darrel and Aine who were also delighted with their 1st half marathon finish times.

Then its finally time to train for enjoyment and just tick over, a few pics from the runs I’ve had at the Roe Valley Country Park, a wee cycling selfie 😉 and my 1st ever puncture! haha

Aaron

Weekend Walks, Cycles & Runs!

I was lucky enough to have a few days off at the end of last week. Thursday was filled with a lot of touristy walks with Andrea, along the Antrim coast, taking in Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, the giants causeway, and a wee visit to the old Bushmills distillery. As much as it was a chilled out day, and I mean, walking is so simple, but when you go for long enough, it tires you out as much as anything else haha I think running would be easier 🙂

Friday was then my only chance for a cycle, I sent the message out on ‘whatsapp’ to the MAMILs, and luckily Shane was also off, and fancied going for a spin. Meeting point was as usual, Tesco express, this is literally bang in the middle for us, each having 5 miles to cycle from either end which works out well.

We kept it handy, and went around the bridges to start with, adding in a loop of Myroe, towards Ballykelly, bridges again (in reverse), Aghanloo and back to Limavady. The wind was tough enough at times, but it’s expected at this time of year I guess. No doubt we have 6 months of wind with rain ahead of us! We made our way up the Ballyquin road where we split, Shane headed home in the Drumsurn direction, and I made my way through the Roe Valley Country Park, to the Largy.

I then went across to the Baranailt road, and a speedy 3 mile(ish) run down to Limavady with the wind on my back, this was enjoyable for sure. From Limavady I had a tough cross wind to deal with on my way home, thankfully 4 mile was all I had left to do at this point. A total of 40 miles cycled, with a 15.5 mph average, tough enough day to be honest, but with good company in Big Shane, it went in quick, cheers lad.

Sunday morning was gorgeous, the sun shone, and it was screaming out for a run. As usual, I sent a message to the lads to see if anyone fancied it, and yip, I would again have the company of Shane. It was such a good day it would be rude not to go to the Roe Valley Country Park for our run, it’s beautiful up there. We met up and jogged our way around, a lap is 2.2 miles long, a few laps is just perfect for Shane to maintain his fitness at the minute, I on the other hand, wanted a little more. I kept going until I had a total distance of 8 miles, at an average of 8:26 min/mile pace, all Zone 2 which I was happy with.

Andrea had also come for a run, doing her own thing though, which was good, as I didn’t want her showing Shane up 😉 haha! I tagged along with her at the end, and her pace is much better than she gives herself credit for, good work you, keep it going.

Andrea and I, are hoping to do a few Parkruns in South Manchester, close to where she lives, in the next few weeks, I’d better watch my back eh? Also, having recently signed up for her 1^st ever half marathon in March next year, this is just the start, a new journey lies ahead, and I can’t wait to help her along the way. 🙂  All very exciting stuff…….

Aaron

A Little Bit Of Everything.

The end of the season means it’s finally time to relax, train when you want and how you want. No pressure of thinking, I ‘must’ do this session, or that session. If there’s a bad day or a day you really aren’t feeling it, you can always say no, it will keep till another day!

This is now the situation I’m in, which is great for sure, BUT, there’s a little voice in my head telling me to keep at some general training, and maintain my bike legs, something I didn’t do last year. This got me thinking, instead of building the base fitness at the start of the year, why not keep it going(within reason obviously), if I don’t let my base slip away, then, come the time of building a peak, I’ll have a huge base to build on!

So, this week, my 1^st week of relaxed training, I did a little bit of all 3.

On Tuesday I went swimming, nothing crazy, just a nice 1 mile session. Usual warm up, typical drill set and a blast of speed work in the middle. Felt like my stroke had totally gone as it has been a good few weeks since I swam properly.

Wednesday evening was a slow and steady 3.5 mile jog, this was all I needed, as I was still feeling the effects of Sundays half marathon in my legs.

On Thursday, I decided for a spin on my bike. I got the tyres pumped on the Kuota, and off I went for the standard spin around Myroe and the Bridges. From mine, this is a great wee 20 mile loop, not a hill in sight and perfect to get my legs going again. I must say, it was great to get out cycling again as I had taken time off since my Ironman. I even had time for a cycling selfie haha

When I arrived back at my house, I got straight into a 15 minute core session, all good.

Today is a rest day, which is great, and I’ll need all the rest I can get, as tomorrow morning I’m out running with Archie, and we all know he doesn’t do ‘slow’….. sure why would I not 😉

Aaron

Belfast Half Marathon.

The Belfast Half Marathon took place on Sunday, and a few of my mates and I, were ready to give it a blast. Eddie, who was an official pacer once again, was pacing the 1hour 45minutes finish time, Simon was going for a PB if possible, as was I, and a few 1^st timers were out today too, Darrel and Aine. John, who is mad keen for every race on the calendar, sacrificed his chance at a PB also, as he ran with his wife Gael who was also a 1^st timer. Good man John, that must have got you some brownie points 😉

With the unfortunate situation of a Road Traffic Accident on the route, the race was delayed by 1 hour. We only found this out 1 minute before our initial start time, nothing we could do though.

Once we wished each other good luck, we made our way to the starting point, at which we thought would be around other runners with the same pace. I bumped into Gary, a friend from Springwell running club in Limavady, and lucky for me, he was running more or less the same race plan as I had.

We were off, and as always, the starts are a bit crowded, and there are people everywhere. After a mile or 2 it clears up, and the pace settles. Gary would be slightly faster than I am, so I thought if I could stick with his pace, I’d be sure to finish with a decent time.

The miles ticked along nicely, the route was good and I enjoyed it. Once we hit around mile 9 or 10 though, I could feel I was struggling to hold the pace. This wasn’t helped when mile 11 and 12 were a gradual climb back up the Malone Road, Gary pushed on well at this point. Doing the math in my head trying to work out what I needed to get a PB was tough, while concentrating on keeping my legs going and focusing on the last stages of the race.

I pushed the best I could, but I knew I was getting it tight, it has been a long year and my legs had had enough, according to my Garmin I finished with 1hour 34minutes 57seconds, an average of 7 minutes 14seconds per mile, this was a PB by around 30seconds. I’m very very pleased. I suppose I’ve Gary to thank for that, as he kept me going for those 1st 10 mile, cheers mate.

Everyone else had great races, Simon took 4 minutes off his time for a new PB of 1hour 38 minutess, while Darrel, Aine and Gael loved it, and finished really, really well. This was the 1^st of many I’m sure.

That was the final race of the season for me, now it’s time to sit down and plan what the winter training plans will be, I guess all that will depend on which Ironman I’ll do next year. If I go early or late, the winter training will be very very different, either way, I can’t wait, bring it on!

Aaron

4 Mile Tempo.

Transfer deadline day is 1 of the most exciting days of the year for every football fan, and yesterday was no different. Sitting on twitter, waiting for new stories to be reported throughout the day was the highlight at work 😉 Then of course, once home, it’s all about Sky Sports News, and Jim White being his usual excited self all evening.

This is top class, and everyone always hopes their team seals someone big on the last day. But for me, as a Chelsea fan, we are so organised early on, done our top class business early in the summer, resulted in a fairly boring deadline day for me.

So, with little to get excited about, there was nothing else for it, than to get my Asics on, and go for a wee blast. I went for a little 4 mile tempo run, 2 mile out and back route, a few small inclines but nothing to worry about.

Mile 1 was easy as usual, pan flat, and took 7:05 min/mile pace.

Mile 2 had the 1^st little decline&incline and got my heart rate going, taking me a little longer.

Mile 3 obviously had the same decline/incline, felt ok though.

Mile 4 was decent, found a rhythm and I pushed on for a sub 7 min/mile with ease.

My average was 7:05 min/mile pace for the 4 miles, and I was happy enough with that. Today will be a long slow recovery run, and another chance to get bigger miles under my belt. I feel good about my running, training and race planning again, September always gives me that fresh start feeling thankfully. Lets hope that feeling continues.

Aaron

Recovery Run.

On the plus side to speed work, you always need a nice slow recovery run. No sign of fatigue, high heart rates and the sick feeling was a million miles away, you couldn’t beat it.

Darrel has built up the miles for the Belfast half marathon which is just around the corner, and he was keen for a few long, steady miles yesterday evening. This tied in perfect, and we arranged meet up in Limavady for some company for each other.

Slow and steady suited us both, and the miles ticked away quick enough. I guess when we started reminiscing about our motocross days, we certainly weren’t short on ‘craic’ to pass the time. We worked out that our 1^st trip across to England for some good practise tracks was 12 years ago, scary how the years fly by.(I’m chatting like an old man here) haha.

We reached 10 miles with ease, the furthest Darrel has ever ran, and he’s confident now for the half marathon knowing he can at least go the distance :). I also felt good, loosened my legs up from Tuesdays sprints which was all I was after. A few stretches, a bit more chat, and we were done, a great wee session for us both.

Today is a rest day for me, and tomorrow I hope to get a good tempo run completed at some point. I’ve got to I suppose, as I’m off to CREAMFIELDS this weekend, and there won’t be much running from me then 😉

Aaron

Now What…..

As my big plan for 2014 is over, what happens now? Well, 1^st of all, I’m desperate to get some speed back in my legs, so it’s all about running over the next few months I’d imagine.

Most of my mates and their better halves have signed up for the Belfast Half Marathon on September the 14^th, so of course, this is my goal for the immediate future. It doesn’t give me much time to find my speed though, but I made a start on it yesterday to see what I have in me, and see what I’ve got to work on.

I thought a nice 5K would be a start, this is a far cry from 18 miles and 20 miles which became a regular run on the build up to the ironman. I started off nice and steady, mile 1 was around 7:55 min/mile pace, felt good and upped it again, mile 2 was around 7:05 min/mile pace. I was starting to breathe heavy for sure but again, I felt I could push a wee bit more on my final 1.1 mile. I think my final mile was 6:50 min/mile pace which pleased me a lot. My legs were decent but my poor heart and lungs were working hard, they just hadn’t had anything out of heart zone 2 for 6 months haha I managed the 5K in 22mins 27seconds, pushing hard for the last 0.1 got me an average of 7:15 min/mile pace, happy enough for sure.

So the 1^st run has been done, and each week I will set myself little targets to reach and see how it goes, I’m going to get back at our local park run UK events also, and joining me will be my mate Chris from work who has also got the running bug, all good.

Can I find enough speed, and manage to hold it for 13.1 miles within 6 weeks? Will my 1hr 35mins half marathon PB be beaten, hmmmm time will tell. Lets get working with tempo runs and some intervals and we’ll see!!

Bring it on….

Aaron

Spreading The Triathlon Bug

As always being highly dedicated and involved with the triathlon training pretty much everyday gets my mates talking and intrigued. I talked Darrel into a wee sprint triathlon in May 2013, Ricky and Seamus into a Half Marathon in September 2013, and for 2014 it seems Darrel, Ricky and my brother in law Keith will all take part in the Roe Valley sprint triathlon in May. What’s strange is that all 3 of them have different qualities. Darrel is a great swimmer, Keith is putting in some really good miles on the bike and Ricky is a good runner. On the day it’s going to be good to see how they fair out and of course the post race banter between them will be brilliant. The triathlon bug is spreading and I’m super excited for the season ahead with such good mates.

Wallace Hall Academy Half Marathon

The weekend arrived and it was time to get the flight over to Scotland to visit my sister, brother-in-law and my wee nephew Archie and of course race the Half Marathon to raise funds for the local secondary school. Mum and Dad came along for the trip, the chance to spend some quality time with Jillian, Jake and Archie and support me at the same time was a win win situation for all concerned.
Jill collected us from the airport and on our way to their house my priority was to get a quick drive around the run route and check out all the inclines. WOW, at this point I knew why it said on the entry form that PBs are never achieved on this course. As always carb loading the day before is always fun, love my food and Jill made such a delicious pasta dish for dinner. Thanks sis.
Sunday the 10th of November, what must have been the coldest, frostiest morning Scotland had seen this winter so far, minus 4! Thankfully I brought my under armour base layers. A good breakfast was had, hydrating loads as usual off to the race we went.
The Roads around the castle were froze solid, so the 1st half of the race was all on the grass along the side making it a mostly cross country course, a new experience for me. Pace was good enough, a fairly small entry so I found myself around 8th place at mile 3. Then the crazy hill was upon us, a full mile long lane was what we had to attack, it took it out of a good few of us that’s for sure. A few down hills were welcomed at this stage but it didn’t last long. A slow steady climb for about 3 mile was next, trying to keep a steady fast pace was more or less impossible for me, losing out on a few positions annoyed me slightly.
Mile 10 once again gave us a ridiculously steep hill to climb, slow and steady was the plan and at this stage I knew the reason why PBs are never achieved. A flat mile 11 was brilliant, looking down into the valley was 1 of the best views I’ve ever seen. Finally 1 more descent and a dash for the finish line, where all the family and supporters had waited patiently. My finish time was 1hr 43mins. Slower than normal but I can’t be disappointed as this was the toughest course I’d ever ran.
Received my medal proud as ever and set off home, Jill had the Sunday roast ready and it was an afternoon on the sofa with my feet up watching football, Super Sunday is hard to beat. 