DIY Winter Training Camp

In an ideal world we'd all be able to head away to the sun for the Winter.  A few hours on the road bike every day, run up a mountain and then have a swim and spa whilst the chefs cook us numerous tasty and healthy dishes to keep us fuelled.  We'd return tanned, chiselled and destroying our PB's for fun...

Another sunny Malta day

Reality time!  For most of us a week away over Winter is a luxury and even then exercise comes way down the list behind family duties so I was delighted when my wife suggested we head to Malta for three weeks this February.  Now I'll be honest, the major factors behind this idea were more to do with the fact that our two year old son couldn't pick the sun out in a line up and heating the house for our new baby is more expensive than buying a foreign island but in the back of my mind I was hatching a plan.

Having decided to train properly this year I'd had a great December and January but was already getting jaded with the idea of getting frozen and soaking yet again every day through Feb so I jumped at the idea.  Luckily with two weeks paternity and a part time contract I was able to free up a whole three weeks.  Here is what I learned.

1) Do it!

A self catering apartment in a 4 star hotel cost us 21 Euro per night for 2 adults and 2 kids!  21 Euro!  Fresh towels every day, cleaners, gym, pool, spa and all for less than it costs for us to be at home with heating, fuel etc.  The flights cost us £350 and food was really cheap with fresh veg and fruit markets everywhere.  The journey with a 2 year old and a 7 week old was a dream, Easyjet were excellent and allowed us 4 big free extra bits of luggage as well as priority boarding, brilliant.  Can't say we'd expect the same level of service from other well known (and much hated) low cost airlines though!

2) Be Organised

In the first week I was trying to fit in my running whenever I could which is really difficult.  Anyone who trains seriously knows that having no time to mentally prepare for a hard session makes it doubly hard as well as the problem of not being able to exercise within a couple of hours of eating.  By day five I decided to get up early and get out there, it was still hard on minimal sleep but at least I knew it was coming every day.  It also meant that I could spend the rest of the day being as relaxed as possible.

3) Be Realistic

I was on a family holiday which with our kids meant little sleep, constant playing, virtually no genuine relaxation and impromptu weights sessions (carrying a knackered 3 stone kid over a mile up a hill from the beach!).  As fun as this all is it isn't classic recovery time so be prepared to listen to your body and adjust your sessions accordingly.  I managed to train every day, some sessions were absolutely brutal and others were a bit more relaxed but I was amazed how well I did recover despite never stopping all day, just the mental relaxation of being on holiday can spur you on physically.

4) Be Creative and Go Explore

Malta is definitely not your quintessential mountain running training venue.  There are no mountains for a start, as well as that, virtually all spare land is used for growing veg so there are very few trails.  On day one I headed out just to see what I could find and ended up with a 7 mile loop with road, beach, trail and off-trail elements ending with a big hill.  This formed the basis for getting in some miles.  Outside our hotel were 112 steps which provided some amazing endurance and sprint interval sessions.  This led to some funny looks, filming, photos and fighting through the stink of the morning smokers but definitely made a difference.

The 112 Steps

Done 100 times!

5) Lay Off The Booze!

I'm no drinker these days but the local Cisk lager was amazing and the wines were really good too. There's undeniably something about being on holiday that makes you want to drink but if you're going to get going at 7am then you need to be disciplined. Couple of glasses at dinner = Good. Couple of bottles at dinner = Puking on the aforementioned steps.

6) Think How Bad It Is At Home!

The weather in Malta wasn't amazing initially and I wasn't hugely delighted when everyone's Facebook was showing blue skies in the Mournes but then I saw sense.  Running in shorts and short sleeves in the dead of Winter along a stunning deserted clifftop path at 7am is a total joy.  The skies were blue in the Mournes but then so would my skin have been if I'd headed out in what I could wear on holiday.  Smugness is a top motivator and no matter how much I may have dreaded an upcoming ball buster of a session, knowing it would be warm made all the difference.

7) Let The Family Know

Don't just sneak out every day, tell the family your plans.  If your partners are anywhere near as understanding as mine then it means that at least you'll get time for a shower and some breakfast when you return from running up and down 11,000 steps before you become a human climbing frame for the day!  Also there's nothing better than an adoring child saying 'did you have an excellent run daddy?' when you get through the door (obviously those with teenagers wouldn't expect this!)

Getting the family involved - Rowan doing some resistance work

So that's that.  I've never run more than three times a week in my life with biking taking up so much of my fun time so I was really intrigued to see what effect my DIY training trip had.  Since coming back I've taken chunks out of my quickest times on two of my usual testpieces and there's more in the tank.  I definitely feel fitter, stronger and mentally great having got more Vitamin D than I'd usually see this side of August in a year.  If you can free the time then I'd really recommend putting together your own Winter camp.




Malta was great, the people were lovely, the weather good, food and drink good, prices cheap and lots for the kids to do.  I'll happily pass on recommendations based on my experiences, drop me a line at ian@rockandrideoutdoors.com if you'd like some details.

Eagle Ridge - Lochnagar

Yesterday (21st Feb) John McCune and myself climbed the classes Eagle Ridge (VI, 6) in Lochnagar.

2nd Pitch - Eagle Ridge

We had asked about conditions of the route but no one had been that way.  What we didn't want was unconsolidated snow as this was meant to make it quite hard going.  The approach was promising with bullet hard neve requiring crampons.  Unfortunately the steeper the approach the more unconsolidated the snow was. Not letting this get in the way John headed off having climbed the route in summer and knowing the line (pictures of topos on iphones isn't always a great idea!).

We both ended up with 4 great pitches.  Pretty much all of the cracks were filled with snow and it gave for quite a bit of clearing and what felt like swimming at times.  The route is currently in but a small freeze thaw would do it the world of good.

It was John's last route after 6 weeks in Scotland.  Great way for him to end his trip!

Alpine Conditions in the Scottish Highlands......

Gargoyle Wall

Indicator Wall

It has been a pretty intense few weeks up in the West Highlands.  Here are a few words I wrote for the Alpkit lads!



www.alpkit.com/daring-deeds/classic-week-on-the-ben

Last pitch on Orion Face Direct

The last few days with John McCune have been very good as well.  All routes high up on the Ben are in excellent conditions with light winds and very much alpine conditions.  I will let the pictures do the talking..........

The panoramic from the top of Ben Nevis

Lochnagar tomorrow for Eagle Ridge hopefully!

Scottish Winter Climbing

Anybody over in Scotland this coming weekend as this might be worth a visit.


Scottish Winter Climbing Meet 2nd-3rd Feb 2013

http://www.scottishwinterclimbing.co.uk/

Rock & Ride will be out working and climbing in Scotland so if you are interested in Scottish Mixed or Ice drop us a line.

Facing The Challenge - The Donard Hat Trick

I'll start this post with a caveat, I haven't completed this challenge, in fact if I'm totally honest I haven't even attempted it really!  I have however come up with a tough new testpiece and developed a fair idea of how spectacularly hard it is so I thought I'd throw down the gauntlet to anyone who wants to take it on.

The Mournes skyline, Donard is the big pointy one

Slieve Donard, Northern Ireland's highest mountain stands at 853 metres tall and towers over the seaside town of Newcastle, County Down.  It forms the centrepiece of the iconic Mourne Mountains skyline which can be viewed from miles around and inspired Percy French's famous poetry.  In ancient times the summit was said to be the home of Saint Donard who provided the name for this spectacular lump of granite. 

In real terms 853m barely makes it a mountain really but the proximity to the coast and the relentless gradient of the main walking track make it an enticing challenge for hikers, charity walks, people in flip flops with a bottle of Lucozade and all sorts of others.  A clear view of the summit from the comfort of Newcastle's many cafes seems to have the effect of dragging the foolish and unprepared towards it in a frenzy of summit fever, keeping the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team busy and teaching some harsh truths about the mountains to the uninitiated.

Personally, I'm not uninitiated, I'd like to think I know the mountains well.  I've been up Donard many times in near 30 degree heat (honest), howling blizzards, daytime, nighttime, racing, training and so on.  In fact, it's got to the stage where I don't really consider running up and down Donard once to be much of a challenge and that's where the hat-trick idea originally came from.

My Mourne Wall efforts in the Summer set me looking for new challenges but the onset of Winter and a rare attack of sense have kept me away from the Mourne 500 (more on that to come).  I wanted something controllable and safe but also horrifically difficult whilst also being theoretically possible, easy!  A while back I read an account of someone doing ten ascents of Donard in a day and that set me thinking, what about ten timed ascents with a target to beat?  I quickly realised that my boredom threshold would prevent this becoming a reality but what about something shorter, quicker and slightly less ridiculous, what about three sprint ascents?

A few years ago I read with shock that people actually run up and down Donard in less than an hour. It was even more of a shock when I realised that I was also capable of being one of those people!  I regularly run it for training in just over the hour mark and so my triple ascent time target needed to be close enough to the hour to be very tough but not so close as to be unachievable.  I settled on 70 minutes for each circuit, a total of 3 1/2 hours, non stop, starting and finishing in Donard car park each time.  There are different routes available and even on the Donard race consensus is split between heading up the main walking track or dragging over bog and moorland up the steeper but half mile shorter Black Stairs route.  Personally I think the Black Stairs are quicker but for the sake of not falling off a cliff I decided to make the rules strictly main track only, up and down.  This makes one lap 5 miles with over 5500 feet of combined ascent and descent, possibly one of the toughest runnable 5 mile laps anywhere!

Rules decided, the only thing left was to slap on the Inov8's, eat a bar and get going...

Except it's madness!  70 minutes is a pretty respectable time for a main track lap when only doing one, surely it's not possible to maintain that pace over the three?  I decided the best way to find out was to do two laps first and see what effect it had.  So it was that I found myself jogging up the rooty initial track after work on a grey November afternoon.  I was keen to maintain a steady pace so I didn't really push myself, summiting in just under 46 mins and not really sprinting the way back down.  I was hoping for about 1:08 so was pretty annoyed with myself when my warm up lap was actually 1:12:40, way off the average target for the three laps!  No problem I thought, I'll push hard on the second lap and make the time up.  Wrong!  As casual as the first lap seemed, even keeping within my limits clearly took its toll and despite pushing hard my second lap lost me more time.  The increasing headwind which always funnels down the valley certainly didn't help the ascent and the impending darkness definitely slowed the descent, particularly in the forested end sections so the 1:16 second lap wasn't really a surprise.  Total two lap time, 2:28:15, over eight minutes off target, back to the drawing board!

For a while I pondered increasing the average time allowed to 1:15 but what's the point of moving the boundaries just because I'm not good enough to complete the challenge?  Better to keep trying until I can do it.  A different approach, less headwind and not doing it on a work day could maybe see me get closer to the target.  Two out of three isn't bad and so on a blustery Saturday morning I left the car park at a decidedly brisker pace.  The headwind was still a definite factor but despite not going too hard I still summitted in sub 43 and hit the bottom in 1:06:30, three and a half minutes banked and I could sniff a possibility!  The second lap was tough, the wind was really sapping and there is only so much motivation you can glean from the shocked expressions of the people you're passing for the second time on the way up.  I got to the top at 1:54:20, it was going to be close.  The initial descent is steep and littered with boulders, not the greatest combination for seized knees, creaking hips and tired quads so I maintained the best style I could and tried not to fall and smash myself.  Finally the wind became a friend as I stretched out my paces along the beautifully constructed mid section, skipping over rocks and driving as hard as I could over the short sprinty rises.  I kept the pressure up all the way to the bottom, only the early onset of cramp slowing me on the final car park sprint.  And the result was... 1:19:26!  On target for two laps, very pleased and yet even more daunted by the prospect of having just 1:10:34 to do the last lap with legs like rocks. 

Can I do it?  I don't know.  I didn't eat or drink on those two laps and obviously refuelling will be essential to complete the three but with a constantly running clock it will have to be done on the go either whilst panting hard going up or concentrating hard going down, not easy.  I feel close enough, and yet also far away enough to stay inspired by this one, pretty soon I'll go for the three laps and see what happens.

And that's where it stands.  Except I'd like to see this challenge achieved, not just by me, by anyone.  I've recently mentioned it to the elite of Mournes mountain runners and received a luke warm response so I'm throwing it open to all.  Ironmen, Mountain Marathoners, Endurance Cyclists, Mountain Bikers, if you are someone who thinks they're fit or know someone who thinks they're fit then get them to drop me a line and have an official attempt.  I'll be there at the finish to cheer you home and buy you a pint.  There must be someone out there who'll have a good dig at this... 

 

Contact ian@rockandrideoutdoors.com if you think you're up to the challenge and I'll give you all the info.

Cuillin Ridge Photos

Cuillin Ridge, Skye.

Having been away with Paul for a few days in Scotland and a quick return for some work I headed back to Scotland and teamed up with John Orr. Another few days in the Scottish Hills and since coming back home I've been hectic with work.

So photos for now and I'll have few words about one of the most fantastic places one can get to anywhere over the Christmas break.

Approaching last summit



Looking back on entire ridge



Have a wonderful Christmas and great climbing in 2013

Park Life - Yosemite!

Panoramic of Yosemite Valley!

Last week saw Marshall and myself give a few slideshows around the country.

Back in September/October of this year we had an extremely successful climbing trip to Yosemite. We went out with a short tick list that consisted of climbing 3 of the bigger and steep faces in the Valley: the Nose of El Capitan (In A Day), Half Dome via the NW Regular Route and Astroman on the Washington Column.

The trip started out slowly.  After travelling from Dublin - San Francisco, picking up the hire car and checking into Camp 4, we headed straight for Astroman. Not such a good idea!  By the top of pitch 3 we were completely out of water, climbing in the intense sunlight and totally wrecked from travelling non-stop!  With the infamous Harding Slot looming we both happy sacked it off for a nice swim in the Merced and to have a look at our 'tick list'.

Astroman in blazing sunshine!

Essentially we went back to the drawing board and made a plan.  Like Marshall said in a short video clip "it had been a 7 year hiatus".  I had to google it when I got home to see what it actually meant (a small difference in pitch between two musical tones) whatever that means but basically we needed to do a little Yosemite apprenticeship so not to get spanked again!

We got on some of the easier classics such as the 20 pitch Direct North Buttress on Middle Cathedral.   This Old Skool route follows a series of awkward and, at times, scary chimneys and flares.  We managed it in good time and style.  Next up was the 3 pitch Moratorium. Jono Redmond from Dublin was kicking about and with his partner injured from rock fall he was keen to hook up.  We got a pitch each with Marshall leading the last crux pitch.  There isn't much to hold onto if you have fat sausage fingers so Marshall had to battle!  Once at the top I told him it was onsight soloed by John Bachar - he could't believe it!  To keep the rhythm going we went for the West Face of El Cap, a 19 pitch gem on the western flanks of El Cap.  We went for the onsight and managed it with both of us getting loads of funky, awkward and varied pitches.  Now psyche was high and the list was ready to go down!

4am start for NW face of Half Dome.

Up first was the NW face of Half Dome.  We took a bivi at the base with the intention of getting it done in a day.  We got off to a great start arriving at the chimneys after 3.5 hrs of climbing.  Our rhythm was then broken with a bottle neck of slow parties through the chimneys.  They seemed to take a eternity to get through and hauling is definitly not a good idea on this route! Once we were past them and chillin on the Big Sandy ledge (there was more of a bottle neck at the Zig Zags), we arrived at the edge of the Thank God Ledge.  This for myself was a real highlight of the trip and I can see how it got its name!  Below is a little video of Marshall crossing it.  We arrived on the top in daylight and descended with friends who had just topped out on another route!

Thank God Ledge!

After a bit of R&R and a recce to Dolt Tower, it was time for the Nose In A Day. The little run up the first 12 pitches of the Nose was a great way to look at the systems that were needed to move fast and to get a feel for those pitches that we were going to be climbing in the dark.  Marshall was keen for the King Swing and Great roof so the first set of block leading was mine!  We opted for 4 blocks - I would do 12 pitches, Marshall 10 then 5 each to finish. 32 pitches in total!

Stovelegs, The Nose

The approach to climbing something like this is very different to climbing somewhere like Fair Head or in the Mournes.  After every pitch the rope is fixed to the in-situ bolts.  This means the second simply climbs up the rope, strips the gear and hands it over to the leader to get on their way again.  In this style the leader is in 'lead mode' for his block while the second can relax a bit more.  I guess you could say this was the case for the first 2 blocks but after that the wall kicks back making upward progress much more difficult! I must say I was pretty scared jugging the last pitch and actually put a gri gri on as back up!

The tree and success at the top of the Nose.

We made it to the top in just under 17hrs.  I think we were more relieved then anything - it means we don't have to go back and climb it again in that style!

I was battered after that day, my fingers had swollen, joints hurt and the sheer scale of the place becomes totally overwhelming!  I think we rested for 3 days, we did nothing but chill. The beer tasted good and we treated ourselves to a few 'all you can eat' breakfasts and endless Peats coffee!  In the back of our minds though, we knew that we could not leave Astroman half complete - or Astroboy if you bail from below the Slot (as we did!).  I had fallen off the enduro corner first time around, something I had wanted to climbing since forever really and we really didn't enjoy our first go at it.  It was time to climb it, get through the slot and finish off our 'tick list'.

Enduro Corner

Changing Corners Pitch - Astroman

While climbing in Separate Reality we bumped into Clayton from Austin, Texas.  His partner had injured himself on Freerider and was keen to climb Astroman so he teamed up with us.  He also volunteered to take on the slot, something that I didn't complain about - it was Marshall's pitch anyway!  

So with only a few days left of our trip we got back on it.  We climbed our pitches clean and even saw a few BASE jumpers jump from the visor on Half Dome! We topped out in the dark and were rewarded with pizza and beer at our camp (thanks Chris).  What a great way to finish one of the most successful and enjoyable trips I have ever had, thanks Marshall - you're a legend and bring on Freerider in a few years!

We are MEN! AstroMEN!

So back to the slideshow.  We both cruised to Tollymore (great turn out, 80+), Dublin (you can tell there is a recession) and Cork (70+ with proceeds going towards the Cork Youth Climbing Club).  The idea of the slideshow was to inspire the youth, show them where they want to be going in years to come and the beautiful climbing to be had in the most beautiful valley I have ever stepped foot in!

A big thanks goes out to Alpkit (for keeping me warm and looking cool!), Tollymore (for the equipment), the weather gods for no rain in 3 and half weeks and my lovely wife for putting up with this lifestlyle!

The slideshows were kindly supported by Kerry Climbing, Mountaineering Ireland and Tollymore National Outdoors Centre.