I reckon that:
1) You run your marathons (42km) at pretty close to the 3 hour mark - give or take 3 mins.
2) You do most of your training at between 13-15 km/hr or a HR of about 165 - 175 bpm.
3) I reckon you either have very short legs, or you do very little resistance training :-)

Spooky or what!!! Short legs! If they were any shorter I wouldn’t need a knee joint. So we met today and went through the info in more detail and I was shocked by the conclusions. It was amazing how scientific it all was. So you mean it’s not just a case of one foot in front of the other? You mean there’s a way of getting better that doesn’t involve just running more? Seriously though he was so professional and had charted out the graphs that would tell me my areas for improvement. Now obviously Nigel explained it in a much more professional manner but basically, my VO2 is pretty good, my Lactate Threshold and RER (Respiratory Exchange Ratio) is good so the area I’ve to work on is my Running Economy. So we have devised a plan, tailored to the fact that I’m running Rotterdam in 9 weeks (so nothing too drastic!!) and before you know it I’ll be running Personal Bests and breaking records all around me….well maybe not, but he certainly instilled in me a huge sense of “Wow this sounds great, I’m going to do all I can to improve” because everything he said made so much sense. Everyone should get themselves a Nigel…..

(Thanks Nigel!)

I will update you on the new regime as it goes on.

-Aisling-

Image from Science Daily.

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND (Team Geared Up) - After what has been largely a disastrous summer for Irish climbing with a lot of rain, rain and more rain (as one friend put it with that amusing Irish curse, “the weather’s been sh&*e”), I thought I’d drag together whatever snippets I could accumulate from the climbing scene.

It seems everywhere bar the Burren has been frequented between rain showers this year. The Aran Islands finally seems to be getting some of the attention it deserves and Grainné O’Brien’s collection on Flickr shows some of the wilder routes that are possible there (photo above of Rob Whelan on The Roof (E4/5.12a), a roof climb on pre-placed protection through a crack in the roof). There have been a few more climbers out here however, and hopefully there might be some good news from the previous weekend of some new ascents so stay tuned on that.
Fair Head in Northern Ireland has also had some regular visits although it sounds like the weather has had a toll also. It seems most of the groups from Dublin have been limited in their success. Still though, as Niamh Burke’s photos on Picassa show, the weather was obviously glorious for a few days (see photo below also)! FairHeadclimber is reporting some ascents during July so it seems the Northern group have been lucky with some good days also. Ricky Bell, ever reliable for new routes, has climbed two new E7’s for example (see top of page for report)

in between all this, Ailladie.com, one of the reliable sites for news on the Burren’s climbing scene died a death a few weeks ago and will be missed. It looks like I’ve one less place to look for news and photos now. As for the sports climbing scene, it seems that most of the active climbers have been making the most of the European sports climbing with a few trips to Gorge du Tarn, Ceuse, Switzerland, Italy, etc. - pity there’s not enough bolts in Ireland to save the flight. [that's the sort of comment to stir up a hornet's nest in Ireland :)]. We’ve already posted on TGU about news of irish climbers abroad here, here and here.

As always, if there’s any news, make sure to contact me [ntesting @ gmail.com] with the info and I’ll do my best to post it!

- Neal :) -

(Image Credits: (top) Rob Whelan on The Roof, Aran Islands, Ireland. Photo by Grainné O’Brien
(bottom) Claire Comiskey on unknown route, Fair Head, Antrim, Ireland. Photo by Niamh Burke.)