Club Notes / This weeks spins

Hi all, we hope you had a good week

Tuesday and Thursday evening we had our usual winter turbo training sessions take place and they are going very well with members getting in some very good base training, Well done to all.

 

 

On Wednesday we had a few club members hit the trails of Portumna forest park. It was a bitterly cold morning with a strong breeze gusting but thankfully the trees offered great shelter. They were blessed with fine weather on the day only getting one light shower of rain near the end of the spin. The trails are now covered in leaves making it a bit slippy but great fun. They look forward to their next outing.

 

Saturday morning we had a few club members out for a spin which set off from a very chilly Stereame car park, with the temperatures as low as 1 degree and no promise of much of an increase according to any online weather forecast. The NTW cyclists set out on a pre planned 90km route which included meeting up with an exchange student from Italy on the road. After introducing themselves to Giuseppe Greco in Toomevara, an accomplished mountain biker, they pushed on to Roscrea where their new cycling buddy gave them a fine display of bunny hopping over potholes! Turning at the Black Bull for Shinrone they all agreed that temperatures had dropped further and a higher cadence was set to keep the chill away. Just outside Shinrone they turned for Cloughjordan and from there across to Moneygall where they parted company with Giuseppe. They made it home to Nenagh with just over 92km completed and Giuseppe arrived home safely with 102km recorded. A very big well done to all who braved the elements!

Sunday Spin

We had great numbers out for the first of our new format club spins and on the morning they decided to split into 2 groups a green group and a red group. Below are two reports, one from each group.

Green Group report

“So the Sunday morning three group approach quickly became two.  With the temperature hovering in and around freezing, the group were keen to set off before Pat had the opportunity to discuss our mentoring strategy, but perhaps that was their plan, and maybe that’s something that us senior riders should do with Pat more often!  Jokes aside, Pat was spot-on with the two group strategy and the mentoring was on. We headed off as a group of eight with Grainne a welcomed new comer on her first ever group ride – a daunting experience we can all recall.  We took the road to Cloughjordan as the temperature seemed to drop a little further.  The soupy fog came across the hedgerows making any group ride this time of year a challenging task whilst we took some comfort from bright day lights and bright clothing.  It was clearly evident that this was an experienced social group of riders needing little in the way on mentoring.  Happy to set their own pace, they dictated a strong and comfortable shape all the way to Moneygall before returning directly to Nenagh and opting for a smaller 45km spin.  Our new rider should take solace in the fact that it was a difficult morning to start group riding given the temperatures, but this is an excellent group of riders to start club riding.  There’s always something to take away from any group ride.  For new riders, its generally a step up from riding by yourself and you will generally need to push yourself a bit harder than you are used to, but that’s required for progress.  For experienced riders, we should consider setting objectives for these off-season spins whatever your ability whether its hills, speed, or group structure and rolling over on the front.  For mentors, its perhaps important sometimes to stay quiet!  A cold but enjoyable morning.  Great group.” Great report Gary, thank you very much!

 Red group report

“As a big group of members, 17 in total gathered outside Moynans bike shop for what was going to be another cold morning on the bikes. We decided to split up into two groups, one red and one green. The red group set off first as agreed, which allowed anyone that felt the going too hard the option of slowing up and joining the green group that followed closely behind.  Leaving Nenagh and heading towards Cloughjordan it was clear that our group of nine was working well together with the comfortable pace set to see us finish within the stated 28-32km average for the route. As we turned out of Cloughjordan and heading for Moneygall the light fog turned quiet dense and thankfully with a combination of high visibility clothing and bike lights we all felt safe on the road. Before we turned left in moneygall for our early morning coffee stop we had decided to continue on to Dunkerrin and turn in the village to allow the green group time to join us in the Obama plaza, little did we know they were to be proved the tougher group as they decided to continue straight back to Nenagh without the warm, rich taste of coffee accompanied with tasty treats.  We are claiming to have cycled through freezing conditions in Dunkerrin, but the judges on the day decided when the going is tough the tough stay going. Well done guys!  On our return to Nenagh mutiny happened, with the thoughts of warm showers tempting most of the group it left just four willing members to continue on. The second loop of the morning was leading us out the old n7, through the Silvermines village and turning in Dolla back for Nenagh was voted against, due to possible safety concerns with the freezing conditions on higher ground, so we agreed on a quick spin out to  Ardcroney and back, to finish up at a very nice time of 12:30.” Thanks so much Noel on another fantastic report!

Club Christmas Night Out!

Another date to be put in your diaries folks!! Since we no longer have our awards night in December, we are going to have one or two sociables near Christmas on Wednesday the 14th December in Rohans pub, Nenagh for one of their trad night sessions and we’ll be meeting at 8:30pm. We hope to see ye all there for what is guaranteed to be a fun night!

Club EGM

We’re holding a club EGM in the Dapp Inn on Wednesday the 30th of November at 8:15pm. You’ll receive more details on this by email shortly.

 

This week’s Club Training spins (New Sunday Initiative, see below) are as follows:

If any of you are heading out for a winter spin put up a message on WhatsApp and you may get a bit of company.

Tuesday: Club turbo training session from 7pm to 8.30pm in Stereame. Contact Pat on 087 6744400 for details and directions. 

Thursday: Club turbo training session from 7pm to 8.30pm in Stereame. Contact Pat on 087 6744400 for details and directions.

Saturday: Intermediate cycle 40/50km in distance,  leaving Woodies at 7.30am.  Anyone who wants to is very welcome to join in on this spin. You can contact William on 086 2447888 for more details.

Saturday: Winter training spin leaving 9am from Woodies carpark. Route is decided on the morning by those present. If anyone wants to change the time for this put up a message on the Whatsapp group and see if it suits everyone.

Sunday: Leaving at 9am from carpark at Moynans. (This weeks mentor is Eoin Ryan) In case you missed last weeks notes, we’re trying a new initiative which worked very well this week, depending on who turns up to split into three groups with defined speeds to try and help people get back out and make progress in both technique and fitness.

We’ll split into 3 groups if the numbers allow;

1. Firstly a “Green” group that will be for beginners/leisure and that group will be held at 20-24kph average. This group will have a senior rider mentoring and controlling the pace to ensure it stays low enough for any beginners. If we don’t have anyone who wishes to ride this slow then the mentor will go with the Orange group.
2. The next group will be the “Orange” group which is an intermediate group and will be controlled at 25-27kph average. We have plenty of intermediates that are fit enough to control this group but for the next few weeks if we could get another senior rider to volunteer to go with them to help fine tune the groups riding etiquette and control the pace so the group works well together and doesn’t split, the same way the senior group works, it would be much appreciated.
3. Finally we’ll have a “Red” group which will do in the region of 28-32kph average depending on who is out.

These 3 groups are to split up in the carpark so there is no confusion about what group you are going in. The mornings mentor should take a lead in sorting this on the morning. All groups are going to do the same route at the start and we’ll be completing a short loop with a coffee stop so everyone gets to enjoy it, not just those doing a long spin. This first loop from Nenagh should only take about 2 hours cycling give or take (at green group pace) so even the beginners or anyone with time constraints will be able to come out and get back home early. The Red group will leave the carpark first separately, followed by the Orange group and finally the Green group. Leave a little gap (30-60 seconds at least) between groups so there is no confusion which group you’re cycling with. If you want to move up into a faster group it’s entirely up to you, by all means give it a go and if you’re suffering too much then the best thing is to let the group know you want to fall back to the other group and then turn around, keep moving to prevent getting cold and you’ll be picked up by the following group within minutes. Everyone at some point will want to give a faster group a go so don’t be afraid to have a go if you feel you want to, the lads and ladies will always be full of encouragement!

So, for this week’s route, we’ll be doing two loops with the first being 43km, Moynans – Birdhill – Coffee @ Applegreen – back to Nenagh. From there the groups can decide if they want to do the second loop which brings the spin up to 80km, Borrisokane bypass – Borrisokane – Towards Cloughjordan – Old Birr Rd back to Nenagh.

We’ll try this again next weekend and see how it goes but initial reports are very positive! If you have any ideas on how we can improve this to encourage beginners and leisure cyclists to get out there and enjoy the whole experience of the Sunday group spin then by all means let us know.

Have a great week out there folks!!