Anything to do with adrenalin

I have migrated my blog to the following address.
http://fiolasadventures.tumblr.com/

video-of-bike-to-work-002video-of-bike-to-work-004

Rehab is all well and good. But it won’t bend like it used to. I partly guessed it never would  but that it would be so stuck is kind of annoying. I can grip but no bending at the joint. Patience

I appreciate greatly living in such an amazing place. Zurich is spectacular. I even got out on  the bike during lunch today and packed in this route in an 80 min ride which was handy for lunchtime with nearly 400 metres of climbing. That combined with the 15km to work and back makes for an albeit broken, 60km day nonetheless.

Tomorrow evening a run with Grant Killian, organizer of Untamed New England AR World Series with whom Im doing my first mountain marathon the KIMM in 3 weeks time in Chamonix. Thursday I hope to road ride, perhaps with Olympic silver medallist Emma Pooley who has turned up of late to the Hillseeker Thursday night ride. This weekend a long trail run on Saturday with a paddle and bike ride on Sunday! I cant wait to get on the water too.

Check this out: Feist and Grizzly Bear -  Service Bell amazingly surreal…

Over and out:.

So now that Im in the market for a new road bike and we are post Puck Fair ( I am from Killorglin after all) I came across this Cube Advertisement. Wicked

Im back on the bike.

Yesterday I headed out with Laurie http://biken4fun.blogspot.com/and Cameron visiting the Hillseekers  Becky and Jeff Grant http://www.hillseekers.com/ , Stu and Ian McCarthy, Magnus and Kat. So we had a healthy sized group.

Picasa Pics link

We started from Zurich HB at 7.30 am (ouch on a Sunday morning) and towards Gröschennen, near Zermatt. My bike had some gearing trouble (the usual, I know need a new road bike now) so Stu triend to fix it alas without a pliars we couldnt tighten the gear cable so I had to manually shift between the two cogs in front but it wouldnt be such an inconvenience anyway as we would be either going uphill or downhill and not really undulating in between.

It was amazing.

The Big Scheidegg

Susten Pass was very comfortable for me, I maintained a really steady rhythm the whole way up despite my terribly big gearing and managaed to stay below 160bpm the whole time with only Cam and Stu ahead of me. We reached the top, had a coffee and waited for the others. When we got close to Meiningen Kat and Magnus dropped off, Kat preparing for the Inferno next weekend and Magnus shaking his head and warning me about Gross Scheidegg, now I know why.

It was serious.

The moment we started out I knew I was going to be in trouble, length and climb are two words that dont instill that much fear in me normall but when I hear incline, then I begin to get worried. I cranked and grinded as much as I can but by about halfway the bunch were ahead of me simply cause I couldnt keep turning the chain, standing wasnt an option so I actually had to walk a little section. YOu know what its like, try getting up a really steep hill in the wrong gear, imminent death.  Ian was next to me for most of the rest of the way and I just tried with all the strength I had to keep going. Cursing myself for not having at least changed my cassette already.

But I did get to the top and the view was amazing.  NExt weekend hopefully Ill have had my bike sorted out with a new cassette. I wish I had the money to jsut get a new one as my wheels are on their last spokes too.

Anyone need to get rid of some money and I sure know where to spend it!

We had a surprise on the train home, resigned to sitting on the floor of the bike carriage,  stinky and noisy we found some free seats in the dining car and ended up substituting for the Sri Lankan barman when he disappeared to wheel his trolley, if we had been on commission we may have made some extra money from the business we attracted while he was gone!

Super day out…heres to being back on wheels!

Two awesomely cool videos of mountain biking in ireland

My local downhill in Killarney, this is where I started with Jay Scully

Steve Peat on the Cliffs of Mohar and lots of pubs

http://picasaweb.google.com/hipififi/MelchseeFruttJochPass?authkey=Gv1sRgCOLIkZTdl7mfbg#

I just fell in love…again…with Danny Mac Askill (only he has no idea)

This weekend is hiking weekend in the Engelberg area. Cant wait. Staying at my friend Marc`s fabulous mountain chalet on Saturday night check out Chalet Frutt.

So Ive been lookling also at some gear and will be more dilligent in posting any interesting links to the usuall websites that interest me. On the way from Ireland to Zurich the other day I had a lots of time to kill and spent most of it in WH Smith reading magazines and came across some interesting articles on lightweight gear for backacking or adventure racing. Ive never had to use a tent in an adventure race as I havent done one where we actually stopped yet (Im talking 29 hours on the go here)! But check out the Terra Nova Laser Photon Elite its only 1lb 11oz or .76 kg…LESS THAN A KILO..wow. If anyone feels generous, I really really need a tent for Christmas…a really light one…under 1 kg hint hint

So. This must be the unluckiest season of my life- had to pull out of the Trans Alps and Im typing this with the 5 fingers of my left hand.

While in California 3 weeks ago I had a tumble and managed to break a knuckle on my right hand, pretty badly at that. The prognosis was surgery and until they said that I thought Id still be able to get to the starting line of the race Id prepared for so much over the last few months. Not only did I mis the Trans Alpes but also the beast of Ballyhoura with my team, the words “there will be others” meant nothing for quite a while afterwards but now Ive managed to reshift my focus and Im back running and increasing my mileage on foot until my hand repairs itself well enough to at least road bike again.
Ive also signed up for the Zurich Ironman 2009 (dont worry, Im not converting to tri), a 2hour on the 29th of August in the Black Forest and the first ever 24 hour mtb race in Ireland (and my first) called Gael 24 on September the 20-21
So although this has been a bad luck season, as always one has to look at reality, and the bright side. At least it wasnt a leg, and at least I can run and I can focus on the long term goal of a good performance at Abu Dhabi in December with Irish AR Denny.

Training continues, this weekend with a 2 day Alpine trek near Glarus, I hope to camp, so expect some very nice pics here on Monday. Last week I ran some of the Pizol route, up past Furts and the lakes, how amazingly beautiful. Its actually fun being on foot too! Nex t thing is to get my kayaking organised! 9 hours in Abu  Dhabi last year has frightened me into getting this organised!