Another year, another Paddy's Day! I don't really like the St. Patrick's Day Parade mainly becuase of the huge crowd. I much more prefer to watch the whole thing later on in the TV.
So, instead of going into town to see the parade, I get out on the bike in every year and have a lovely spin out in the nature far away from all the madness that is in the city. It did work well in the recent years so why to change? I kept my own little tradition and celebrated St. Patrick's Day on the bike! :)
Friday // Very civilized XC spin up on Threerock
Finally I managed to get rid of the flu I picked up more than a week ago, so it was time to get back on the bike and get some lovely off-road session done on the dry trails of Threerock. I went up there before work on Friday to see how is the form.
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| Happy to be back on the bike after illness :) |
Most of the trails were nice and dusty and the weather was pretty nice as well. The whole spin was very easy and calm, nothing extraordinary along the way. I was out for a little more than 2 hours and it was absolutelly fantastic to ride the bike since in the last one week the most I have done was the cycle to work and back. Happy days! :)
Saturday // Savage road spin over the Sally Gap & Shay Elliott climb
Today I went out with a fellow Hungarian good friend Daniel from Cycle SuperStore to have a savage road spin. We haven't cycle together since the Wicklow 200 last year, so I was happy to go for a spin with him mainly 'cause we always have a good laugh and he always sets savage pace! The only thing to know about him is that he is "never in good form" (as he says) but he always goes like a freakin' train! :)
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| Quick shot near the Lough Tay |
We hit the road nice & early and started to climb towards Sally Gap just as we always do. The weather was pretty ok so everything went very well. Got up to the top quickly and after a super fast descent we got to Laragh where we decided to get into the well known coffee shop. Now, I'm not that "let's stop for a coffee and a slice of cake" kind of guy but in the end of the day it was Paddy's Day today so it was a good reason to have a little treat indeed! :)
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| Hot chocolate & cake with whipped cream, yummy! :) |
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| Happy as a little scout with my Paddy's Day treat! Thanks for the invitation Dani! :) |
After our short break we were ready to get back on the bike. Just after we left Laragh and started the Shay Elliott climb the sky opened up and we got some proper heavy rain. I was under a little bit of a time pressure to get back home so once we reached the top we turned around and started to head back towards Dublin. We were doing pretty good speed already but 'cause the rain didn't stop and I needed to get home, we started to pull along harder to make up some time. It was brilliant until my fingers got completely numb just as they normally do in wet and cold weather. I started to suffer a bit by the time we got to Enniskerry but from there isn't too long to get back to Dublin. I was tired and very cold but a proper hot shower got me sorted in no time! :)
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We have done 113 km of a distance under 4 hours and 38 minutes with 1650m elevation gain along the way. This was my longest road spin this year and with a strong training partner it was pretty hard going I think.
The route was the following:
Dublin - Enniskerry - Military Road - Sally Gap - Roundwood - Laragh - Shay Elliott climb - Roundwood -Enniskerry - Dublin
I did like both of the climbs indeed, however the Shay Elliott was pretty grim thanks to the lashing rain. But we still loved it though! :)
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| Elevation graph |
With these two lovely spins I defo had a great St. Patrick's weekend. I've done nearly 7 hours on the bike over the last two days. One day is still ahead of me to get some rest and do some stuff at home. But for now it's time to get some sleep! See you around! :)
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