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.

Saturday Spin

Our training this morning took us on a 90k loop, taking in many towns and villages along the way such as Roscrea, Templemore and Borrisoleigh.  With a varying array of requirements from the four attendees we warmed up together, spilt up on the road ”to do our intervals” and met up again at a pre planned  rendezvous point to return together to Nenagh.  Great training session guys👍

Thanks Noel for the report.

Sunday Spins

We had great numbers out again for our club spin and on the morning they had enough numbers to split into the 3 groups. Below are two reports one from the Green group and one from the Red group.

Green group report.

This morning’s mentoring  started with a track pump and several soft wheels.  With John Caulfield’s help, thank you John, the four of us set off on our way to Birdhill for our reward of freshly brewed coffee and croissants.  With a steady pace set, it wasn’t long before we were sitting comfortably in Applegreen’s service station.  Our return journey back to Nenagh was aided by a gentle tailwind and left us with an increased average speed of 21.5kmph for a 2 hour spin.  Great spin everyone, kudos to all!

Thanks Noel for the report.

Orange group report.

Weather conditions on Sunday morning were about as good as you’re going to get in December, and four of us set out at a nice pace on the old N7. Cathy joined us in the Orange group on the morning, and showed herself a true ‘orange’ throughout. The new Green/Orange/Red group organisation now seems to be widely understood and is ‘bedding in’ very nicely. It allows for both a settled structure and the ability to move between the different groups, and is working well (or will work so long as there’s a minimum of three in each group).

We proceeded towards Birdhill, turning off for Ballina at the Four Sisters, and thence onwards to O’Briens Bridge. We had quickly adopted our usual group cycling formation of single file rollover, and we successfully used it for most of the morning. This particular formation, which has the group rolling over with the cyclist up-front being regularly rotated after about 1.5km, is ideal for the smaller groups. Indeed, in some respects we get a better workout than members of the red group, as we individually spend more time up front. (There’s less chance of hiding out in the back). I can’t pretend that we use it all the time, as sometimes we use the ‘safe’ formation. This sees us spread out all along the road at minimum intervals of 50m between individuals. While being safe it sometimes gives the mistaken impression that we actually don’t know how to cycle in a group!

One of our group came close to coming off in the village, as he had to slap on the brakes in a hurry to avoid a damn fool dog who sauntered out across the road right in front of him. But no skin or fur flew, and we pushed on to Applegreen via Birdhill. A welcome feature of the new route chosen was that the coffee stop was more about the halfway mark, rather than the 20k mark. No harm to have the carrot(cake) held out in front of our noses a bit longer on the morning. Mind you, it wasn’t all that long ago that we cycled without any coffee stops. I could hint that we’re getting soft, but it’s Winter, so let’s indulge ourselves a little.

On leaving Applegreen, we split into two groups of two, with one group heading up the old N7 to Nenagh via the bypass, while the other group of two headed back to Nenagh via the tougher and more scenic lake route. The spin back was pleasant and uneventful. The lake route group put in a 68k spin. Not quite the 85k of the previous Sunday, but still a very pleasant spin on a Winter morning.

Thanks to Gerry for the report.

Red group report.

We set off from Moynans out towards Limerick on what was a lovely morning for a spin. There was a bit of a bite in the air at the start and it certainly felt a little cooler than the previous morning but once the lovely winter sunshine set in it soon settled into a fab morning to be out enjoying the bike. There was a deceiving headwind to contend with but as always this was perfect as the way out is the best time to endure this and have a lovely tailwind to look forward to on the return leg. We turned off the Limerick road towards Ballina to take in a lovely little loop out to Clare and back to work up a thirst before descending on the Applegreen for some fresh brew and some treats and we just about managed to meet up with the lads and ladies in the green group before they left after their coffee. Fair play to everyone this week as no one chickened out of taking on the always formidable Charlie’s Hill before returning to Nenagh. I offered the rest of the lads the opportunity of joining me in a few sprints on the last leg of the spin but my offer was met with a deafening silence after Charlie’s and I had to endure, I mean enjoy them on my own!! 😉 Everyone enjoyed a really good mornings spin and most importantly got back safe and sound to Nenagh. Well done everyone!

Thanks for the report Owen.

Club Christmas Night Out is this Wed night!

We’re going to have one or two sociables this 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!

This week’s Club Training spins 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 Nanno Vuyk)

Depending on numbers, we’re going to split into three groups with defined speeds to try and help people get back out and make progress in both technique and fitness.

The 3 groups are;

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.

We’ll split into the different groups in the carpark, with Red leaving first, then Orange and finally Green. The routes will be similar with the same start, middle(coffee stop/change groups) and end. The orange and red groups will cover the same route but there is also a green group spin that should only take about the 2 hours cycling. For anyone reading this and sitting on the fence about whether to come out and give it a go, come on out and try it. You’ll be well looked after, just come in and be ready to leave on your bike at 9am from Moynans. Ask one of the lads to point out that weeks mentor to you and introduce yourself to them so they’ll know if they have any newcomers.

By all means don’t be afraid to have a go at moving to a faster group than normal as there will still be plenty of chances to cut it short or change groups at the halfway point.

So, for this week’s Green route, it’s: Moynans – Toomevara – Moneygall – coffee @ Obama Plaza – Back to Nenagh

And for the Orange & Red it’s Moynans – Borrisokane – Cloughjordan – Moneygall – Obama Plaza – Toomevara – Ballinamona cross – Dolla – Silvermines – Old N7 – Nenagh:

Have a great week out there folks!!