June was always going to be hard. I had committed to doing the Wicklow 200 with a few close friends late last year which would have been fine only I also needed to do a 600km to keep my hopes of doing the super randonneur series alive.
It meant that I had the Wicklow 200 on the second Sunday of the month with the 600km starting the following Saturday.
I figured I would be fine due to the fact that I did the Mile Failte 1200 last year. Sure, this would be easy compared to that, wouldn’t it?
The Wicklow 200 was hilly but I had 5 full days to recover and the coast to coast 600 wasn’t all that hilly at all.
The Wicklow 200 is a great event. Read my full report of it here. For anyone looking for a tough one day challenge then look no further. Like I said, I began it with two friends, one of which vastly underestimated how hard it would be and didn’t really get much training done.
As a result, the first 80km were slow going. I eventually had to leave him as we weren’t going to make the cut off times. I then spent the rest of the day trying to hunt down my other friend, who had left us on the second climb. However, he is much lighter than me so the hills suited him.
It took a lot out of me. More than I expected. This is partly down to the fact that I haven’t been training properly for the past few months. I have also put on a few pounds. I think I was relying on my limited exercise to keep my weight down while I scuffed a lot of junk food most evenings.
I’d be fine, I told myself. Sure I need some fat to burn on long spins. I often joked that my belly is my fuel tank.
5 days later and I was starting the coast to coast 600. Read my full report here. I was still feeling some effects of doing the 200. My legs where pretty stiff for the first 100km but they, thankfully, loosened up after that.
However, I generally felt tired. I was missing a bit of a spark and my heartbeat was higher than usual. After 300km I found it hard to quench my thirst, even though I was drinking litres of water. The last 200km were a real struggle to a point that I wasn’t even enjoying it. I had put too much faith in cycles I had done in the past and as a result I had “let myself go” a bit.
I learned my lesson of staying healthy at all times, however, after completing the event that lesson was driven home by the news that one of cyclists doing the event had died due to what seemed like heart failure of some kind.
I couldn’t believe it. I had met the man a few times during the day before. A real nice guy that didn’t even seem like anything was about to go wrong. He was super fit and had done many long cycles in the past. Apparently, it happened without warning.
It was a sobering fact that I was taking my own health lightly. Doing these type of ultra-cycling is hard enough but when your overweight and aren’t eating great then it’s time to get real.
I know that fatalities over this kind are rare but it made me wonder what the hell I am doing. Of course, my loves were quick to point out that I should give it up and to be honest, I thought about. But then I took a step back and looked at the big picture.
A lot more people have heart attacks sitting on couches than on bikes, yet everyone still sits on their couches. No, I will continue cycling but from now on I will give it the respect it deserves.
I have a 400 km to do in September in order to complete my SR challenge but I made a promise to myself to be in much better shape or I’m not doing it. It’s time to get real.