So this week I’ll be taking on one of the toughest challenges I’ve ever taken part in. I’ll also give you a list of the best free apps you can download to help train for something like this. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Gaelforce West adventure race let me just give you a quick low down of what’s involved.
STAGE 1: BEACH, TRAIL AND ROAD RUN (13km)
Start line at Glassilaun beach in Connemara. Continue by road around Little Killary Harbour and then over the hillside into Killary Fjord. Make your way along the old Famine greenway, muddy and uneven underfoot, to the shore below Killary Adventure Centre and the kayak transition area.
STAGE 2: KAYAKING ACROSS KILLARY FJORD (1km)
Kayak from the southern shore of Killary Fjord to its northern shore in a two-man sit on top with the next competitor to you.
STAGE 3: TRAIL AND ROAD RUN (3.5km)
Disembarking onto the foothills of Mweelrea, with tufted long grass and boggy holes underfoot. Next on to a laneway and eventually a narrow road leading you to the Delphi Bike transition. **New location**
STAGE 4: CYCLING (33.5km)
Leaving the Delphi valley and heading for Drummin, spectacular hills to climb and extreme care needed on the downhills. Expect severe corners and narrow country roads. On to a gradual climb up to the back of Croagh Patrick and the transition area. The final 2km of this section is on a loose stoned and rough forestry track. Punctures possible on a road bike.
STAGE 5: MOUNTAIN RUN/HIKE (4.5km)
Croagh Patrick. Stay on the path and take care on the top section of this mountain as it has a lot of loose stones. If you do not reach the transition here by 14:30 you will not be allowed to ascend the mountain and you will be short coursed back to Westport.
STAGE 6: CYCLING (10.5km)
Always obey the rules of the road. Sealed road first and then onto a very rough off-road trail section that is 2 km long. Expect to carry road bikes over parts of this section. Coming off this there is a steep downhill section on a narrow road. Please take care on this section and watch out for traffic and fellow competitors.
STAGE 7: FINAL RUN
You will cycle to the bike drop on the grass area by the lake at the quay in Westport where you will leave your bike. The final run through part of the grounds of Westport House brings you to the finish line in Westport Leisure Park in Westport town centre.
(Above Info Taken From Galeforce Website PDF here)
Total Race Distance : 67km
So if that sounds horrific it’s because it is. However I’m not new to the event and I’ve completed it twice before. Last year was the 10th year and a special centenary race. I struggled across the line with a dodgy knee after 6 hours and 20 minutes.
My brother Brian did a lot better finishing 21st overall which was an amazing achievement. Here he is being interviewed after the race.
So we’re both ready to take it on yet again. But how do you train for this kind of endurance race. Well it’s a combination of running at least 10k around 3 times a week and cycling at least 30k with a few hills thrown in every so often. A few climbs thrown in like The Sugarloaf in Wicklow helps prepare a bit for climbing Croagh Patrick but it’s the toughest part of the race by far no matter what training you do.
These days technology plays a bit part in any fitness regime with many people using apps to help them track their progress and there’s a wealth of fitness bloggers and vloggers out there. Apps can be used to track times, routes, calories and many forms of workout. Here are my favourite apps which are all available for free on ios and android.
Map My Run
For me this is the best fitness app of all. You simply create a profile and enter some details so that the app can give you a more accurate reading based on your height, weight, age, etc. The app will track your route and give you a map of it along with calories burned which is based on various things like your details, distance, speed and difficulty. You can save each workout to a feed and choose to keep this private or not. You can add friends and see their workouts if they’ve made them public. The app can also be used for other workouts such as road cycling, walking, mountain biking but I prefer to use other apps for some of these.
This brings us to our next app which I use for cycling.
Strava
Strava is my number one app for cycling. It can also be used for running but just as Map My Run is mostly used by runners, Strava is widely regarded as the best in the cycling community. The app works in a similar way to Map My Run in that it will allow you to create a profile, add friends, track your route, distance and time. The advantage for me over other apps is that Strava will record each section of a route you take and compare it against your own personal best and also against other riders who took the same route that day, week and all time. So it might tell you for example that over a certain 2k stretch of your route that you were the 5th fastest that day, 15th fastest this week and 27th fastest of all time. It will also tell you if you beat your personal best of if it was your 3rd or 4th fastest time for example.
It also has some great monthly challenges which you can sign up to in order to give yourself an extra push.
Next up is…..
My Fitness Pal
This is another great fitness app and is also owned by sports clothing and equiptment brand Under Armour who hit the jackpot when US golfer Jordan Spieth won the Masters Golf tournament while sponsored by and wearing their brand. This skyrocketed the brand name into the mind of every golf fan accross the world.
Kevin Plank, the CEO of Under Armour has a vision to “turn Under Armour into a technology company”. Under Armour bought MapMyFitness for $150M in 2013. My Fitness Pal cost the company $475M in 2015. Both companies have a lot of users who are also potential customers. Both apps have over 100 million users at time of writing.
The app lets you track your daily nutrition plan based on your goals. It will also track your activity and let you add your workouts and what you ate during the day. It will tell you how many calories you have consumed and how many you have still to consume before going over your limit for each day. There are also some great recipes to help you eat healthily.
I also do a bit of Mountain Biking now and then which takes us to our next app.
Runtastic Mountain Bike GPS Biking Computer, Ride and Route Tracker
This is my go to app for mountain biking. It not only tracks and measures speed, distance and time but also caddence, elevation and gain which are important for mountain biking.
There are some great mountain bike trails around Ireland and I really do prefer it to road cycling as it’s much more of an adrenaline rush. A couple of great trails just outside Dublin are Ballinastoe and Ticknock. Ballyhoura in Cork is Ireland’s largest trail network and boasts over 50km of trails.
So whatever you choose to do to keep active for me the great outdoors is the best way to do it. Running, Cycling, Hill Climbing / Walking and Mountain Biking are all great ways to keep fit or get fit. There’s also the added bonus of great scenery and fresh air.
These great apps are just some of the free and easy ways to track your workouts and help set out and achieve your goals. I hope you find them as useful as I have and remember they’re all free so give them a try.
Wish us luck this Saturday. We’re gonna need it!
The Digital Dub 