Since I've more or less announced that I'm officially coming back to target shooting, I may as well make my excuses/offer some sort of explanation as to what happened over the past year (or two). Basically, a bad combination of feeling out of place with not speaking German (or not speaking it well enough), moving around the place, culture shock, laziness meant that I had little to no motivation to go shooting. It wasn't until a colleague at work mentioned that he'd like to try pistol shooting that my thoughts stirred again and I suggested the range that I'd been to at the end of 2010.
It took another month or so before we got around to going, him never having shot before, and me with my custom jacket and shiny new rifle. The one that I had only fired test shots in the shop with. You know the one. Two posts down. I've had it a while, and really made good use of the dry firing mechanism on it. It may be wearing out at this point :D The back wall of my apartment has probably thousands of imaginary holes in it at this stage.
Actually getting to shoot the thing was great. The first shot had a stupid grin plastered all over my face and that more or less continued for the next hour or however long we were there. Since I don't have pants, my back was wrecked after it, so baby steps while I get used to the position again. The shooting itself wasn't great, but I wasn't expecting much better (and I'm still not, for the record. I'm happy to give myself a bit of time to get used to this whole thing again).
That said, there has been continuous week on week improvement in my shooting. Working out what's not consistent, fixing it. Getting rid of stress points in the position, muscle tension, etc. A chat with Aisling highlighted something useful I could try, which worked. Making sure I roll my head forward, rather than to the side and then forward will probably save me 5 points a string, nevermind over the course of a match. Keeping the rifle close, the left arm vertical, all those little things that you kinda forget over time, those are all coming back to me rapidly so my progression should be pretty fast for the first while. Got back into the 90s the last time I shot, should improve on that again the next time with a few other bits and pieces.
Of course, you may be thinking that this is all well and good, but what's the next step? Well, I don't know. I know what the next step would be if I were shooting 560+. But I'm not. So there's no point in explaining that. I'm going to take this one step at a time and work on my shooting for now. Maybe see if I can squeeze in some prone during the week. Start training twice a week, once I can stomach the trip from work to home to range and back home again. If the scores pick up, I'll hopefully be able to get in some more range time. The range is currently only open Tuesdays and Thursdays, which limits my range time, understandably. I need to pick up on the dry firing at home from twice a week to 3-4, certainly. Once the ice clears, I'll start cycling to work again, get the physical side of things going again.
This time, I have a lot of time to plan. Or rather, I've planned for a lot of time to plan. I've stopped rushing to get to an international match, just for the sake of it. If anything, I've learned a bit of patience over the past while. So I shall wait. Improve. Shoot more shots per night. Consider getting measured for shooting pants (to save my back, if nothing else) and buying shooting boots. Converse shoes are all well and good, but some sort of ankle support would be nice :D We'll see how it goes. I'll try to put pictures and videos up here of my position and shooting technique as it gets a little better.
Also, if you'd be more interested in checking out somebody who's shooting well at the moment, I have a new blogroll on the right. Some of the Danish national team have blogs which read very well through google translate (to English anyway. YMMV). If anybody has any more blogs to hand, please do let me know. So long for now.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Guess who's back.... again.....
*cough* Eh-hem. */dusts away cobwebs* Right. Well, it's, eh, been a while then? Like, a year? More you say? Hrm. Let's just ignore that fact for now shall we? And the rats over there who seem to have made themselves at home. I'll get around to negotiating with them presently. Anyway, no point in dwelling on the past, time to look to the future. Or something.
I'm going to skip over why I haven't posted in a year (many reasons, including laziness and more laziness) and just cut right to the chase. I'm actually back training in a range again, I'm still cycling and building up a lot of kilometers, and I'm also running. Still working full time on my PhD in Munich, of course, I've just gotten a little better at time management. I'll stick up some more detailed posts in the coming days/weeks, but suffice to say I'm back. And that I have a lot of work to do, most, if not all, of which I'll be sharing here :) Stay tuned!
I'm going to skip over why I haven't posted in a year (many reasons, including laziness and more laziness) and just cut right to the chase. I'm actually back training in a range again, I'm still cycling and building up a lot of kilometers, and I'm also running. Still working full time on my PhD in Munich, of course, I've just gotten a little better at time management. I'll stick up some more detailed posts in the coming days/weeks, but suffice to say I'm back. And that I have a lot of work to do, most, if not all, of which I'll be sharing here :) Stay tuned!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Unboxing Feinwerkbau P700
Sometimes I absolutely love Germany. A wide variety of tasty meats, punctual public transport, lots of beautiful scenery, etc. At the moment, I'm really loving their attitude to air rifles. I had a firearms cert for an air rifle in Ireland up until recently. It took three months for that cert to come through, and it could have taken longer. The story is somewhat different here.
I walked into Frankonia, a large chain of shops which cater to the shooting community in Germany, last weekend to start the process of buying an air rifle. Had I the money then and there I could have walked out that day. As it was, I didn't, and their credit office was closed at the weekend. I did however get the chance to test fire the rifle, which they had in stock, with my size grip and preferred colour. We agreed a price, and I was to come back today to finalise the purchase.
Which leads me to:
It can also shoot pretty well:
...and looks something like this when all set up:
I've pushed the sights up as far as they'll go, which is to the maximum 60 mm allowed by ISSF. I'll need to measure it to make sure, but I trust FWB for now. As a side note, it's amazing to have that height in the sights. My neck no longer feels incredibly uncomfortable when in position. I still have a lot of drop to the cheekpiece, but that's always going to be an issue for me! I have about another 5 mm upwards adjustment in the cheekpiece before it just falls out:
Many of you are no doubt aware of my total and utter hatred of the FWB buttplates, so the first major thing to do was toss their piece of crap out and replace it with my own:
Which leaves me finally with something that looks a little like this;
There is one issue. And it was so massive that a very nice price was negotiated for the rifle. if you look rather closely at the following photograph, you might notice some slight surface scratches along it. I am more than prepared to live with those, especially since I didn't notice it until it was pointed out.
I'm very happy. It fits. It's new. The trigger is a little heavy atm, but that can be easily fixed. It's the nicest set up that I've ever had with an air rifle and it shows. The thing just sits steady in position. I'll be trying it out on the range soon, hopefully this week or the week after. Then we'll see how bad I really am.
Some more gratuitous shots:
I walked into Frankonia, a large chain of shops which cater to the shooting community in Germany, last weekend to start the process of buying an air rifle. Had I the money then and there I could have walked out that day. As it was, I didn't, and their credit office was closed at the weekend. I did however get the chance to test fire the rifle, which they had in stock, with my size grip and preferred colour. We agreed a price, and I was to come back today to finalise the purchase.
Which leads me to:
It can also shoot pretty well:
...and looks something like this when all set up:
I've pushed the sights up as far as they'll go, which is to the maximum 60 mm allowed by ISSF. I'll need to measure it to make sure, but I trust FWB for now. As a side note, it's amazing to have that height in the sights. My neck no longer feels incredibly uncomfortable when in position. I still have a lot of drop to the cheekpiece, but that's always going to be an issue for me! I have about another 5 mm upwards adjustment in the cheekpiece before it just falls out:
Many of you are no doubt aware of my total and utter hatred of the FWB buttplates, so the first major thing to do was toss their piece of crap out and replace it with my own:
Which leaves me finally with something that looks a little like this;
There is one issue. And it was so massive that a very nice price was negotiated for the rifle. if you look rather closely at the following photograph, you might notice some slight surface scratches along it. I am more than prepared to live with those, especially since I didn't notice it until it was pointed out.
I'm very happy. It fits. It's new. The trigger is a little heavy atm, but that can be easily fixed. It's the nicest set up that I've ever had with an air rifle and it shows. The thing just sits steady in position. I'll be trying it out on the range soon, hopefully this week or the week after. Then we'll see how bad I really am.
Some more gratuitous shots:
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Year Resolutions
By that I mean goals for the year. Cycling, running, and, most importantly, shooting should all come along nicely this year, now that I'm settled a little bit in Germany. With that in mind, it's time to work out what I want to hit at some point in the year.
Piecing it all together in one giant calendar is actually kinda fun. I was originally thinking of splitting it all apart, having one calendar each for shooting, cycling and running, but I think this is better. Also, it should help me to not schedule things on top of each other.
After a pitiful year of shooting, it's time to make this priority one again. Unfortunately, there aren't a huge number of goals in late summer/early autumn time that I can aim for. The European smallbore championships are on at a really nice time, but they require qualification. I need a 587 in prone, or 1135 in 3p to make it there. Now, both of these are eminently doable, given good quality training. at 1033 in my last 3x40 match 2.5 years ago, I think this is where I could make up some good ground. Standing alone has the potential to raise about 15 points a string, if I get a decent set up. So that's 1100, with the balance to be made up with prone and kneeling. Doable, but not easy. The prone, OTOH, could either be reasonably handy, or incredibly difficult.
I've done some playing around with a pretend prone position at home, trying different right arm positions, and I think I've found something decent. It should allow good shoulder pressure as well as tucking the rifle in close to me. This will all be greatly facilitated by having the air rifle at home for training. Imitating my prone set up on that will allow training to be done at any time at home, which will be totally cool :)
For running, I'm going to attempt a marathon. I said I'd do it last year, and I just failed. I have two options later in the year, which is what I want. There's the Munich Marathon, on the 9th of October, and the Dublin City Marathon, on the 31st of October. There's nothing much in the way of shooting or cycling around these times, so that works out rather well. I'll probably enter one or the other pretty soon, so I have the time set in stone and I can update my calendar around that.
In the case of cycling, I have Operation M to worry about. This is a one- or two-week tour, planning to take in at least one epic climb. At the moment I'm leaning towards a one week tour, starting in central France in July. From there, head south and then loop into Switzerland, taking in the Col d'Isaren along the way. This is a 33 km monster of a climb, which will require much training. To the Alps!
I have a lot of plans for the summer, so I'm going to be looking for some things to round off the year towards the end. I've already said that I would like to do some time trialling, so I may have a look at that once the tour is over; change the road bike set up to a more aerodynamic position, with tri bars. Or I may be bold and look at building something up from scratch, depending on how serious I want to go with it. Ideally, I'd want to look at racing for that kind of investment.
Those are the rough plans for 2011. I'll be updating as I go, with only a few things that are set in stone. As I said, shooting is taking priority from now on, which means time and money. It may come to pass that nothing really comes of this year, but it should give me an excellent base for the following year in any case :)
Piecing it all together in one giant calendar is actually kinda fun. I was originally thinking of splitting it all apart, having one calendar each for shooting, cycling and running, but I think this is better. Also, it should help me to not schedule things on top of each other.
After a pitiful year of shooting, it's time to make this priority one again. Unfortunately, there aren't a huge number of goals in late summer/early autumn time that I can aim for. The European smallbore championships are on at a really nice time, but they require qualification. I need a 587 in prone, or 1135 in 3p to make it there. Now, both of these are eminently doable, given good quality training. at 1033 in my last 3x40 match 2.5 years ago, I think this is where I could make up some good ground. Standing alone has the potential to raise about 15 points a string, if I get a decent set up. So that's 1100, with the balance to be made up with prone and kneeling. Doable, but not easy. The prone, OTOH, could either be reasonably handy, or incredibly difficult.
I've done some playing around with a pretend prone position at home, trying different right arm positions, and I think I've found something decent. It should allow good shoulder pressure as well as tucking the rifle in close to me. This will all be greatly facilitated by having the air rifle at home for training. Imitating my prone set up on that will allow training to be done at any time at home, which will be totally cool :)
For running, I'm going to attempt a marathon. I said I'd do it last year, and I just failed. I have two options later in the year, which is what I want. There's the Munich Marathon, on the 9th of October, and the Dublin City Marathon, on the 31st of October. There's nothing much in the way of shooting or cycling around these times, so that works out rather well. I'll probably enter one or the other pretty soon, so I have the time set in stone and I can update my calendar around that.
In the case of cycling, I have Operation M to worry about. This is a one- or two-week tour, planning to take in at least one epic climb. At the moment I'm leaning towards a one week tour, starting in central France in July. From there, head south and then loop into Switzerland, taking in the Col d'Isaren along the way. This is a 33 km monster of a climb, which will require much training. To the Alps!
I have a lot of plans for the summer, so I'm going to be looking for some things to round off the year towards the end. I've already said that I would like to do some time trialling, so I may have a look at that once the tour is over; change the road bike set up to a more aerodynamic position, with tri bars. Or I may be bold and look at building something up from scratch, depending on how serious I want to go with it. Ideally, I'd want to look at racing for that kind of investment.
Those are the rough plans for 2011. I'll be updating as I go, with only a few things that are set in stone. As I said, shooting is taking priority from now on, which means time and money. It may come to pass that nothing really comes of this year, but it should give me an excellent base for the following year in any case :)
Monday, December 27, 2010
Things what I has learned this year
Since the year is drawing to a close, I thought I'd do a quick wrap up of things that I learned or found useful over the course of the past year. Many things have changed, but it's all starting to settle back down now. So, for cycling, running and shooting, here we go.
#1 Shooting ability doesn't really seem to decline over time. OTOH, it also doesn't improve, so time not training is still time lost, but it's not counter productive as such.
#2 Running fitness comes and goes rather quickly. However, it is possible to shorten the come-back time through keeping a high training level when I do train. Keeping up cycling at the same time also keeps my base fitness high, so returning to running isn't so bad.
#3 Stretching is the most amazing thing in the world to do regularly. It keeps away injury, and, well, mostly that. This then allows for a high training load.
#4 I need to eat a lot of food when I do regular training. With around 200 km a week, I more or less couldn't get enough food into me to maintain weight. Diet will need to be addressed next year.
#5 I have a pretty measly power output. However, my low weight means I can climb reasonably well. I'd like to focus more on this. Also, my small size may be of some benefit in time trialling, though my power is quite low for that. This is also something I'd like to do a bit more of.
#6 Touring is a lot of fun. I've only done a short bit, but long distance is what I like. The easiest way to do that is with some luggage strapped on!
#7 Shooting is still my favourite sport. Even after a year of not really shooting, I still loved getting back into it. Making plans for next year has been a lot of fun recently.
#8 Proper kit and a good bike set up are incredibly important for long days in the saddle. Anything else leads to pain, which could end up costing a lot more money and time to sort out.
#9 Planning and goals are rather important. I had nothing to focus on for the year, due to work plans being all over the place, so I wasn't particularly driven to do anything. That's already changed for next year. Planning week by week and month by month should yield good results, especially as I've never done this properly before.
#10 Some things are more important than sport. It's a hard one to take, but sometimes it just doesn't quite work out. Really, it has to be pretty low on the priority list. Which leads us back to the planning. A session without a goal is wasted, as far as training is concerned. Making the most of what time you know you have is incredibly important.
So that's about it. Ten things I've learned this year. There may have been some more specific stuff, but I'm sure it's not that important :P It's been a rather relaxed year for me, certainly in terms of shooting. Next year, I hope will be rather different, now that I've found my feet somewhat. Hopefully this post will have some less basic lessons when I write it again in a year!
#1 Shooting ability doesn't really seem to decline over time. OTOH, it also doesn't improve, so time not training is still time lost, but it's not counter productive as such.
#2 Running fitness comes and goes rather quickly. However, it is possible to shorten the come-back time through keeping a high training level when I do train. Keeping up cycling at the same time also keeps my base fitness high, so returning to running isn't so bad.
#3 Stretching is the most amazing thing in the world to do regularly. It keeps away injury, and, well, mostly that. This then allows for a high training load.
#4 I need to eat a lot of food when I do regular training. With around 200 km a week, I more or less couldn't get enough food into me to maintain weight. Diet will need to be addressed next year.
#5 I have a pretty measly power output. However, my low weight means I can climb reasonably well. I'd like to focus more on this. Also, my small size may be of some benefit in time trialling, though my power is quite low for that. This is also something I'd like to do a bit more of.
#6 Touring is a lot of fun. I've only done a short bit, but long distance is what I like. The easiest way to do that is with some luggage strapped on!
#7 Shooting is still my favourite sport. Even after a year of not really shooting, I still loved getting back into it. Making plans for next year has been a lot of fun recently.
#8 Proper kit and a good bike set up are incredibly important for long days in the saddle. Anything else leads to pain, which could end up costing a lot more money and time to sort out.
#9 Planning and goals are rather important. I had nothing to focus on for the year, due to work plans being all over the place, so I wasn't particularly driven to do anything. That's already changed for next year. Planning week by week and month by month should yield good results, especially as I've never done this properly before.
#10 Some things are more important than sport. It's a hard one to take, but sometimes it just doesn't quite work out. Really, it has to be pretty low on the priority list. Which leads us back to the planning. A session without a goal is wasted, as far as training is concerned. Making the most of what time you know you have is incredibly important.
So that's about it. Ten things I've learned this year. There may have been some more specific stuff, but I'm sure it's not that important :P It's been a rather relaxed year for me, certainly in terms of shooting. Next year, I hope will be rather different, now that I've found my feet somewhat. Hopefully this post will have some less basic lessons when I write it again in a year!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Party Time
I've been musing a lot lately about shooting in Germany. I have come across this place, which I already knew about, but wasn't aware that it was in the middle of the city!
So, after some brief looks, I have come to the following conlcusions;
Giggidy
Giggidy
Giggidy
Ouch.
75% giggidy is pretty good. The rifles appear to more or less be factory prices, which I can well live with. Also, since air rifles are unrestricted, I can walk in and take one home once I get back over there. Which will greatly bolster efforts. Ammo seems to be rather pricey, but I can probably source that from somewhere else.
Let's roll.
So, after some brief looks, I have come to the following conlcusions;
Giggidy
Giggidy
Giggidy
Ouch.
75% giggidy is pretty good. The rifles appear to more or less be factory prices, which I can well live with. Also, since air rifles are unrestricted, I can walk in and take one home once I get back over there. Which will greatly bolster efforts. Ammo seems to be rather pricey, but I can probably source that from somewhere else.
Let's roll.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Salzburg trip
I've been meaning to write this since I got back, but haven't really been bothered :D I've been working rather late these past few weeks so it's been home, food, vegitate, food, sleep. A little training, no writing, nothing :( OK, so there was a trip back to Ireland thrown in there, that was kinda fun :D
This trip was something that I'd been meaning to do all Summer, but just never got around to for several reasons, the main one being lack of a touring bag. It only arrived at the start of September and I've actually been somewhat booked out on my weekends since then. I was originally going to make it a three day trip; down Friday, cycle around the mountains Saturday and head back on the Sunday. With that in mind and most of my time off for the year taken, I decided to leave it til next year.
Of course, I got bored. I have terrible problems sticking to plans, as I'm sure you're all aware, so I said fcuk it on the Wednesday, booked the hostel on the Thursday, plotted the route on the Friday and spent the weekend cycling :)
I plotted two pretty easy routes. I was kinda half thinking of some proper climbs, but they all involved a trip length of 180 or so km, so that was out. I didn't fancy 11 hours or so on the bike on either day! Looking back, I'm damn glad I went with what I did 'cos it was tough enough as it was! A few of the hills on the way back were over 10% in sections, and when one is a few kilos heavier than normal, with a few more hanging off the back, this becomes something of an issue.
I'm feeling too lazy to post up photos here, but they're already on my facebook page here (public access). Some are rather nice, some are just my crap sense of humor :D This post was originally intended to be a lot longer, but it's been ages since I started it and I can't remember most of it...
Anyway, figures from the weekend, to distract from my lazyness;
Total Distance; 293 km
Time; 13 hrs, 10 mins
Average HR; 163 bpm
Max HR; 201 bpm
Average Speed; 22.3 km/hr
Max Speed; 64.7 km/hr (new record)
Average Cadence; 84 rpm
Height Gained; 2687 m *this is as measured by the Garmin, it may or may not be that accurate...
So, I've gotten my touring off to a good start. This is the base from which I will plan Operation M, starting next year. I will detail more of this in time to come :)
Later!
This trip was something that I'd been meaning to do all Summer, but just never got around to for several reasons, the main one being lack of a touring bag. It only arrived at the start of September and I've actually been somewhat booked out on my weekends since then. I was originally going to make it a three day trip; down Friday, cycle around the mountains Saturday and head back on the Sunday. With that in mind and most of my time off for the year taken, I decided to leave it til next year.
Of course, I got bored. I have terrible problems sticking to plans, as I'm sure you're all aware, so I said fcuk it on the Wednesday, booked the hostel on the Thursday, plotted the route on the Friday and spent the weekend cycling :)
I plotted two pretty easy routes. I was kinda half thinking of some proper climbs, but they all involved a trip length of 180 or so km, so that was out. I didn't fancy 11 hours or so on the bike on either day! Looking back, I'm damn glad I went with what I did 'cos it was tough enough as it was! A few of the hills on the way back were over 10% in sections, and when one is a few kilos heavier than normal, with a few more hanging off the back, this becomes something of an issue.
I'm feeling too lazy to post up photos here, but they're already on my facebook page here (public access). Some are rather nice, some are just my crap sense of humor :D This post was originally intended to be a lot longer, but it's been ages since I started it and I can't remember most of it...
Anyway, figures from the weekend, to distract from my lazyness;
Total Distance; 293 km
Time; 13 hrs, 10 mins
Average HR; 163 bpm
Max HR; 201 bpm
Average Speed; 22.3 km/hr
Max Speed; 64.7 km/hr (new record)
Average Cadence; 84 rpm
Height Gained; 2687 m *this is as measured by the Garmin, it may or may not be that accurate...
So, I've gotten my touring off to a good start. This is the base from which I will plan Operation M, starting next year. I will detail more of this in time to come :)
Later!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Back on the line
I have finally, after a year of arsing about, joined a rifle club over here. My German has improved to the point that I can get by on the range and a little bit in the more social settings, so it should be all good :)
Now, due to this, I have decided to be an idiot and sent in my Expression of Interest in three disciplines over two matches; air, prone and 3p in Munich, and prone and 3p in Belgrade for the European Championships. The enormity of the task has not bypassed me; I am well aware that I have to get back to previous levels and well surpass them in all disciplines. I think the most ground can be easily made up in air rifle (and also standing in 3p), but there's a lot of room for improvement in prone as well.
So, opportunities and challenges.
Challenge; I've been a lazy git and not trained properly in a year. This doesn't seem to have massively affected my scores, but it's a year of no training and hence no progression.
Opportunity; Air rifles require no license in Germany; I should be able to keep one in a locked case in my wardrobe (which would probably make it one of the more secure airguns in the country...). This allows almost daily dry firing at home, mainly in standing, but prone and kneeling should also be well doable. I need to check transportation issues, however.
Challenge; I need to up my pb by 10 points in prone, 35 in air rifle and a whopping 100 in 3p. Now, the latter is based on my one 3x40 match from a few years ago, so it may not be that bad any more.
Opportunity; I have a fair bit of wiggle room in prone. My scores were on the up before I started messing with stuff at the end of last year. I'm hoping I can pick up from there.
Air rifle has always been my weak point. For whatever reason, consistency was a big issue for me. This was, however, starting to recede towards the end of last year with some excellent training scores. The issue with non standard target heights should not exist here.
In the case of 3p, it could be very hit and miss. There's massive room for improvement in the standing, which should be helped along by air rifle. My kneeling is naturally pretty decent, so a little work there should up the scores a nice bit.
What do I need;
Regular training. I can do two days a week of air rifle with no issues, but the prone requires me to be at the range early. This is a problem as it's at least 90 mins from desk to range, and I normally have to work til 6 or so. Prone stops at 20.30, and it's hard to get a spot unless one is there early.
To get my head well into the game.
Kitwise; pants and boots, of which I currently have neither and it's wrecking my back. Maybe also frames (the old ones don't work with my facial geometry). Stand for air rifle and 3p.
I think I may also need rifles. Yes, plural. I'm not sure, but this is my reasoning; At the moment, I have exclusive use of an air rifle. It is, however, tiny. Too short, not high enough, not a long enough sightbase, not heavy enough. Having my own would solve these problems. Also see point above regarding licensing, or lack thereof. In the case of prone, the club has one old Supermatch. If I am serious about getting to some internationals in the next two years, my own is going to be more or less necessary, for consistency in training if nothing else. Something to mull over.
Physically, I'm in pretty decent shape. A bit porky at the moment from not getting out due to shit weather and actually being rather busy for the past while, but that's only two kilos that can easily be burned off. My endurance has increased a lot over the last year, so I suspect the length of an air rifle match or a 3x40 won't be much of a problem. I'm also stronger, which can only help. I need to work on some core fitness and strength, but that's small stuff for daily doing. When I get around to it. But that end of things is not an issue.
So, as it turns out, I've more or less put the introduction to my training plan up there. I need to work out some specific goals to lead up to a potential qualification match, or matches. And I mean potential. I have no intention of flying back to Ireland with a rifle or two and a kitbag unless I know I'm capable of hitting those scores, even if it's only on a good day.
All comments and suggestions are more than welcome. This is gonna be a hell of a task, and I have no idea how it's gonna go. It should be a decent base for the year after, but I'd like it to be more. As I am fond of saying, it should be interesting :)
Now, due to this, I have decided to be an idiot and sent in my Expression of Interest in three disciplines over two matches; air, prone and 3p in Munich, and prone and 3p in Belgrade for the European Championships. The enormity of the task has not bypassed me; I am well aware that I have to get back to previous levels and well surpass them in all disciplines. I think the most ground can be easily made up in air rifle (and also standing in 3p), but there's a lot of room for improvement in prone as well.
So, opportunities and challenges.
Challenge; I've been a lazy git and not trained properly in a year. This doesn't seem to have massively affected my scores, but it's a year of no training and hence no progression.
Opportunity; Air rifles require no license in Germany; I should be able to keep one in a locked case in my wardrobe (which would probably make it one of the more secure airguns in the country...). This allows almost daily dry firing at home, mainly in standing, but prone and kneeling should also be well doable. I need to check transportation issues, however.
Challenge; I need to up my pb by 10 points in prone, 35 in air rifle and a whopping 100 in 3p. Now, the latter is based on my one 3x40 match from a few years ago, so it may not be that bad any more.
Opportunity; I have a fair bit of wiggle room in prone. My scores were on the up before I started messing with stuff at the end of last year. I'm hoping I can pick up from there.
Air rifle has always been my weak point. For whatever reason, consistency was a big issue for me. This was, however, starting to recede towards the end of last year with some excellent training scores. The issue with non standard target heights should not exist here.
In the case of 3p, it could be very hit and miss. There's massive room for improvement in the standing, which should be helped along by air rifle. My kneeling is naturally pretty decent, so a little work there should up the scores a nice bit.
What do I need;
Regular training. I can do two days a week of air rifle with no issues, but the prone requires me to be at the range early. This is a problem as it's at least 90 mins from desk to range, and I normally have to work til 6 or so. Prone stops at 20.30, and it's hard to get a spot unless one is there early.
To get my head well into the game.
Kitwise; pants and boots, of which I currently have neither and it's wrecking my back. Maybe also frames (the old ones don't work with my facial geometry). Stand for air rifle and 3p.
I think I may also need rifles. Yes, plural. I'm not sure, but this is my reasoning; At the moment, I have exclusive use of an air rifle. It is, however, tiny. Too short, not high enough, not a long enough sightbase, not heavy enough. Having my own would solve these problems. Also see point above regarding licensing, or lack thereof. In the case of prone, the club has one old Supermatch. If I am serious about getting to some internationals in the next two years, my own is going to be more or less necessary, for consistency in training if nothing else. Something to mull over.
Physically, I'm in pretty decent shape. A bit porky at the moment from not getting out due to shit weather and actually being rather busy for the past while, but that's only two kilos that can easily be burned off. My endurance has increased a lot over the last year, so I suspect the length of an air rifle match or a 3x40 won't be much of a problem. I'm also stronger, which can only help. I need to work on some core fitness and strength, but that's small stuff for daily doing. When I get around to it. But that end of things is not an issue.
So, as it turns out, I've more or less put the introduction to my training plan up there. I need to work out some specific goals to lead up to a potential qualification match, or matches. And I mean potential. I have no intention of flying back to Ireland with a rifle or two and a kitbag unless I know I'm capable of hitting those scores, even if it's only on a good day.
All comments and suggestions are more than welcome. This is gonna be a hell of a task, and I have no idea how it's gonna go. It should be a decent base for the year after, but I'd like it to be more. As I am fond of saying, it should be interesting :)
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Lights, camera...
*Note - this has been sitting unfinished for a while. Hence the out of dateness :(
I've just tipped up over the 3000 km mark today :) A slight detour (i.e. missing a turn) sent me on a 65 km jaunt across Munich.
Getting slightly lost in a forest on the outskirts gave me a pretty good chance to test my new front light, a Fenix TK11. Verdict; a pretty good light, certainly excellent for the money. It's plenty bright for the cycle paths and for road use. As a rough estimate, it gives off a bit more than a dimmed car headlight. For extended riding, something a bit more powerful would probably be nice, but I can't see myself doing the Race Around Ireland just yet :D
Including two batteries, the charger and two mounts, the full set up was about as cheap as I could get for a decent power light. It'll serve well, and maybe get upgraded to something brighter in a few years. Though that's big money there, well over €250, so a serious investment if I really need it... I've also added two smaller USB chargeable lights to the arsenal. I'm gonna put up some pics of the lights and what they can do once my camera decides to start working again. It's pretty impressive overall :D But I think the rear needs a good powerful one, there's a distinct lack of glow from there...
I've just tipped up over the 3000 km mark today :) A slight detour (i.e. missing a turn) sent me on a 65 km jaunt across Munich.
Getting slightly lost in a forest on the outskirts gave me a pretty good chance to test my new front light, a Fenix TK11. Verdict; a pretty good light, certainly excellent for the money. It's plenty bright for the cycle paths and for road use. As a rough estimate, it gives off a bit more than a dimmed car headlight. For extended riding, something a bit more powerful would probably be nice, but I can't see myself doing the Race Around Ireland just yet :D
Including two batteries, the charger and two mounts, the full set up was about as cheap as I could get for a decent power light. It'll serve well, and maybe get upgraded to something brighter in a few years. Though that's big money there, well over €250, so a serious investment if I really need it... I've also added two smaller USB chargeable lights to the arsenal. I'm gonna put up some pics of the lights and what they can do once my camera decides to start working again. It's pretty impressive overall :D But I think the rear needs a good powerful one, there's a distinct lack of glow from there...
Distance = Speed*Time
Looking back through my history from over the Summer I'm noticing something interesting. My current top speed is just over 60 km/hr, which I hit about a month ago. It's not terribly fast, but it's half decent. Last night I went training on my fixie. It was the first time in a while, but the road bike needed some tweaking before being let out. The top speed was 49.3 km/hr. This was done on the flat, in a relatively low gear, and sustained for a few seconds. On a fixie. My descending needs to improve greatly :D
On a similar line, I'm currently north of 3300 km for the yearly distance so far, with a few longer spins planned. I should hit the 4000 km mark with a few weekend spins before it gets too nasty to cycle. I think 5000 is out of the question, but that's not terrible given that I started in March and spent a lot of time finding my legs. Time to start on distance targets for next year, I think :) 10,000 sounds like a nice round number... If I'm living in Munich and commuting out to Garching next year I should top 5000 km in just commuting. Add to that my plans for audax and it's looking pretty decent :)
Numbers from my road bike (I have the Garmin on that, so everything gets recorded);
Total distance (so far) - 820 km (2400 on the fixie makes up most of my distance!)
Total time - 38 hours
Average speed - 21.6 km/hr
Max speed - 60.2 km/hr
Av heart rate - 160 bpm
Max heart rate - 201 bpm
Longest day - 141 km in 6 hours 20 mins
Not a bad first year so far. Next year will be better :)
On a similar line, I'm currently north of 3300 km for the yearly distance so far, with a few longer spins planned. I should hit the 4000 km mark with a few weekend spins before it gets too nasty to cycle. I think 5000 is out of the question, but that's not terrible given that I started in March and spent a lot of time finding my legs. Time to start on distance targets for next year, I think :) 10,000 sounds like a nice round number... If I'm living in Munich and commuting out to Garching next year I should top 5000 km in just commuting. Add to that my plans for audax and it's looking pretty decent :)
Numbers from my road bike (I have the Garmin on that, so everything gets recorded);
Total distance (so far) - 820 km (2400 on the fixie makes up most of my distance!)
Total time - 38 hours
Average speed - 21.6 km/hr
Max speed - 60.2 km/hr
Av heart rate - 160 bpm
Max heart rate - 201 bpm
Longest day - 141 km in 6 hours 20 mins
Not a bad first year so far. Next year will be better :)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Some musing..
..for a change. Typically I've dealt with results here and maybe some vague planning, but never much in the way of thinking about it. However, that's about to change.
I am currently in the situation that I actually know where I'm going to be for the next three years. While this sounds somewhat restricting, for me it is in fact rather liberating. t means that I can plan for longer term things, such as touring, training, holidays, etc. So, the question that I'm currently pondering is what to do with limited time resources to maximise what I can see on my bikes. I'll hopefully deal with shooting in a separate post, so those of you not interesting in cycling can look away now :D
Given my location in the middle of Europe, there are many options available to me. In general, the choices that appeal to me are:
touring; multi-day and long distance. Probably reasonably light, and should allow me to see a lot of different things;
Racing; this would be a lot of fun. However, it requires being a member of a club and learning a lot of etiquette, techniques and generally speaking in German, which isn't the best at the moment...
Audax; similar to touring, but long continuous distances, probably again with some light kit, but without having to think of a tent, sleeping bag etc.
Right now, the most appealing is the audax. Touring requires a large time investment for the same distance, though would be a lot easier to do. Audax, while challenging in terms of being on the bike for 22 hours in a given day, would be much more rewarding in terms of distance covered and where I could go. There are some places that are quite close, such as Salzberg (130 km), which are easy to get to. There are also some slightly further away places, such as Prague (350 km) and then there are some quite far away places such as Berlin (630 km). This is something that I think I would quite enjoy as it would allow me to leave after work on a Thursday or something and arrive at a city sometime on the Friday to enjoy it that night and the Saturday and then take a leisurely train home on the Sunday.
Right now, Salzberg should be pretty easy to do. I think nothing of heading out on a Sunday morning for a 120 km spin at a decent pace, with climbing involved, so if my only concern was getting there, I'd have no issues. When I introduce time constraints, and the possibility of cycling back the next day, it becomes a different story, but should still be quite doable.
The last issue which arises is what kind of training to do over the Winter. Each of the above situations will require slightly different approaches, apparently, so I'll have to start deciding now on what to do. Unfortunately, I know nothing. This shall have to be rectified. I also need to learn how to stick to a plan, so we'll see how that goes. This is all dependent on work not leaving me home after dark and half asleep, of course. Hrm.
I am currently in the situation that I actually know where I'm going to be for the next three years. While this sounds somewhat restricting, for me it is in fact rather liberating. t means that I can plan for longer term things, such as touring, training, holidays, etc. So, the question that I'm currently pondering is what to do with limited time resources to maximise what I can see on my bikes. I'll hopefully deal with shooting in a separate post, so those of you not interesting in cycling can look away now :D
Given my location in the middle of Europe, there are many options available to me. In general, the choices that appeal to me are:
touring; multi-day and long distance. Probably reasonably light, and should allow me to see a lot of different things;
Racing; this would be a lot of fun. However, it requires being a member of a club and learning a lot of etiquette, techniques and generally speaking in German, which isn't the best at the moment...
Audax; similar to touring, but long continuous distances, probably again with some light kit, but without having to think of a tent, sleeping bag etc.
Right now, the most appealing is the audax. Touring requires a large time investment for the same distance, though would be a lot easier to do. Audax, while challenging in terms of being on the bike for 22 hours in a given day, would be much more rewarding in terms of distance covered and where I could go. There are some places that are quite close, such as Salzberg (130 km), which are easy to get to. There are also some slightly further away places, such as Prague (350 km) and then there are some quite far away places such as Berlin (630 km). This is something that I think I would quite enjoy as it would allow me to leave after work on a Thursday or something and arrive at a city sometime on the Friday to enjoy it that night and the Saturday and then take a leisurely train home on the Sunday.
Right now, Salzberg should be pretty easy to do. I think nothing of heading out on a Sunday morning for a 120 km spin at a decent pace, with climbing involved, so if my only concern was getting there, I'd have no issues. When I introduce time constraints, and the possibility of cycling back the next day, it becomes a different story, but should still be quite doable.
The last issue which arises is what kind of training to do over the Winter. Each of the above situations will require slightly different approaches, apparently, so I'll have to start deciding now on what to do. Unfortunately, I know nothing. This shall have to be rectified. I also need to learn how to stick to a plan, so we'll see how that goes. This is all dependent on work not leaving me home after dark and half asleep, of course. Hrm.
Fame and fortune!
Well, neither, really. Though DURC did get a nice showing on the new Trinity TV site
The Sports Round-Up Episode 1 from Jessica Pitcher on Vimeo.
There are a few scenes in at the start, then our 10 minute segment starts at about 13.30 or so. I think it looks pretty good. The range looks about as nice as it ever has, which is impressive. This is certainly something that DURC could do with pursuing over the year as matches tend to be a bit more interesting to film than a quick training session.
And no, my name has not been changed to Mike Madigan. Some day Trinity media will get my name right. Maybe. It could help if I was still in said college, of course :P
The Sports Round-Up Episode 1 from Jessica Pitcher on Vimeo.
There are a few scenes in at the start, then our 10 minute segment starts at about 13.30 or so. I think it looks pretty good. The range looks about as nice as it ever has, which is impressive. This is certainly something that DURC could do with pursuing over the year as matches tend to be a bit more interesting to film than a quick training session.
And no, my name has not been changed to Mike Madigan. Some day Trinity media will get my name right. Maybe. It could help if I was still in said college, of course :P
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Long Sunday spin
I'm just back from my first spin out with a group. Well, I say group, but there were three of us. Still, first time going for a spin with people!
The plan was to meet up in town and then head down south towards Bad Tolz and loop back up for a spin, from town, of about 100 km or so. I'd have another 30 added onto that for my return trip to Garching, so it was going to be a long day :D
We started off properly at about 10.15 or so, and made the way south. Glorious weather all the way, for a Sunday in October! Lots of sunshine, not so much wind, not too warm :) It's mostly a really nice flat road surface, dedicated to running and cycling for a good distance, and then giving way to some very...interesting climbs :D The worst was a 12% drag upwards, right after a 12% descent. That involved some very rapid gear changing :D
After going a little off course with a 'diversion' around road works, which required going basically off road through a forest, we started to pick up the pace a little bit on the way back up. I left the lads off in Munich and started to make my way slowly back to Garching, where, upon drinking a half liter of cola and eating a snickers and a twix, it occurred to me that I haven't really done much in the way of distance cycling in quite some time. I'm quite glad that I didn't decide to do any long trips over the last while; I'd have seriously suffered on them! Still though, I made it back in one piece. I just need to work on getting the distance into the legs, which I should hopefully get round to over the winter.
That's about it on the cycling front, I've been trying to get back into things after my holiday, but it's a bit slow going. I'm slightly worried about the running, as it's been two weeks since I've gone out now. We shall have to see :P
The plan was to meet up in town and then head down south towards Bad Tolz and loop back up for a spin, from town, of about 100 km or so. I'd have another 30 added onto that for my return trip to Garching, so it was going to be a long day :D
We started off properly at about 10.15 or so, and made the way south. Glorious weather all the way, for a Sunday in October! Lots of sunshine, not so much wind, not too warm :) It's mostly a really nice flat road surface, dedicated to running and cycling for a good distance, and then giving way to some very...interesting climbs :D The worst was a 12% drag upwards, right after a 12% descent. That involved some very rapid gear changing :D
After going a little off course with a 'diversion' around road works, which required going basically off road through a forest, we started to pick up the pace a little bit on the way back up. I left the lads off in Munich and started to make my way slowly back to Garching, where, upon drinking a half liter of cola and eating a snickers and a twix, it occurred to me that I haven't really done much in the way of distance cycling in quite some time. I'm quite glad that I didn't decide to do any long trips over the last while; I'd have seriously suffered on them! Still though, I made it back in one piece. I just need to work on getting the distance into the legs, which I should hopefully get round to over the winter.
That's about it on the cycling front, I've been trying to get back into things after my holiday, but it's a bit slow going. I'm slightly worried about the running, as it's been two weeks since I've gone out now. We shall have to see :P
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Recent matches :)
It's been quite some time since I've been in any sort of competitive situation. Around nine months, in fact, going back to the Rathdrum Turkey shoot of last year...
Last weekend I was back in Ireland on holidays and, as The Lady would have it, there were two matches on; a 3x20 on the Saturday and a PR60 on Sunday. I decided to do both, along with Aisling and Dave from DURC and the DFST.
Since I hadn't really shot in some time, I was looking forward to getting a few rounds off in practice in the DURC range sometime during the previous week. Unfortunately, due to trinitytv interviews and a shortage of ammo, that didn't end up happening so I went into the matches with about 10 mins of a set up in each position. Some small changes were made during prep and the matches themselves, but nothing major.
Saturday's match started well with the DURC squad arriving at the time the match was due to take place. Fortunately, this works out for us since we were 75% of the detail that day :D I was most wary of the prone match, as this has always been my best discipline and I wasn't sure how I would perform having not shot in three months, and not shot with a decent set up in three times that! It ended up going rather wellish in the end; I didn't embarrass myself and nor did I set any range records. I finished two points down on the leader in that section.
The standing didn't go well at all. I couldn't settle, didn't like the balance of the rifle and was just generally unstable and useless. So nothing much has changed in 9 months then! Much attention will have to be paid to this position in my (eventual) future training.
Kneeling ended up being alright. I had serious vision problems with the target blurring, seeing things swim about and not having the best hold. It closely resembled my air rifle sight picture, so I was pretty comfortable in that regard. Wound up with a 90 and a 93, which also resembles my air rifle scores :D Provisionally, I'm top of the kneeling match, but there are two more people to shooting this weekend, so that will almost certainly change.
I think I ended up on 520 something or other, which isn't great, but not the worst for something that I've never really focussed on in the past. I was second on the day, but that'll probably drop to 4th when the final results are posted.
The prone on Sunday was a slightly different matter. Because it's a full 60 shot match with no enforced breaks, it works to one's advantage to have a nice comfortable position and stay on the ground for the full thing. I did not have a nice comfortable position, so I was up every 20 shots or so :D It started off better than I did on the previous day, but kinda waned a bit after that. I mostly put it down to not having enough rounds down the barrel in the past year to last the time. What is somewhat odd is that the final score equaled my Rathdrum pb! I don't know if that says more about how I trained last year, or about how I haven't lost anything in the 9 months I've not shot...
One new thing I did try was using a yellow filter in my rearsight. I've had the iris for a few years now and never really played with it that much. I figured I had nothing to lose this weekend with it, so I went for it. The result was that my eyes didn't tire so much throughout the match. I suspect that Saturday's shooting might have been better for it. A nice lesson to learn :)
The end result after a poor final on my part was a 3rd place overall, staying (somehow) the same as going in. Aisling, in typical DURC form, won the final with a 102.5, jumping two places in the process. We have a very long and proud history of winning finals and jumping places in DURC. It's probably from the hazing training :D
So that's it. No pics; cameras seem to have died out at matches, and my one is currently awaiting surgery to make the lens move again. If not, it'll be replaced pretty sharpish. Bis spaeter!
Last weekend I was back in Ireland on holidays and, as The Lady would have it, there were two matches on; a 3x20 on the Saturday and a PR60 on Sunday. I decided to do both, along with Aisling and Dave from DURC and the DFST.
Since I hadn't really shot in some time, I was looking forward to getting a few rounds off in practice in the DURC range sometime during the previous week. Unfortunately, due to trinitytv interviews and a shortage of ammo, that didn't end up happening so I went into the matches with about 10 mins of a set up in each position. Some small changes were made during prep and the matches themselves, but nothing major.
Saturday's match started well with the DURC squad arriving at the time the match was due to take place. Fortunately, this works out for us since we were 75% of the detail that day :D I was most wary of the prone match, as this has always been my best discipline and I wasn't sure how I would perform having not shot in three months, and not shot with a decent set up in three times that! It ended up going rather wellish in the end; I didn't embarrass myself and nor did I set any range records. I finished two points down on the leader in that section.
The standing didn't go well at all. I couldn't settle, didn't like the balance of the rifle and was just generally unstable and useless. So nothing much has changed in 9 months then! Much attention will have to be paid to this position in my (eventual) future training.
Kneeling ended up being alright. I had serious vision problems with the target blurring, seeing things swim about and not having the best hold. It closely resembled my air rifle sight picture, so I was pretty comfortable in that regard. Wound up with a 90 and a 93, which also resembles my air rifle scores :D Provisionally, I'm top of the kneeling match, but there are two more people to shooting this weekend, so that will almost certainly change.
I think I ended up on 520 something or other, which isn't great, but not the worst for something that I've never really focussed on in the past. I was second on the day, but that'll probably drop to 4th when the final results are posted.
The prone on Sunday was a slightly different matter. Because it's a full 60 shot match with no enforced breaks, it works to one's advantage to have a nice comfortable position and stay on the ground for the full thing. I did not have a nice comfortable position, so I was up every 20 shots or so :D It started off better than I did on the previous day, but kinda waned a bit after that. I mostly put it down to not having enough rounds down the barrel in the past year to last the time. What is somewhat odd is that the final score equaled my Rathdrum pb! I don't know if that says more about how I trained last year, or about how I haven't lost anything in the 9 months I've not shot...
One new thing I did try was using a yellow filter in my rearsight. I've had the iris for a few years now and never really played with it that much. I figured I had nothing to lose this weekend with it, so I went for it. The result was that my eyes didn't tire so much throughout the match. I suspect that Saturday's shooting might have been better for it. A nice lesson to learn :)
The end result after a poor final on my part was a 3rd place overall, staying (somehow) the same as going in. Aisling, in typical DURC form, won the final with a 102.5, jumping two places in the process. We have a very long and proud history of winning finals and jumping places in DURC. It's probably from the hazing training :D
So that's it. No pics; cameras seem to have died out at matches, and my one is currently awaiting surgery to make the lens move again. If not, it'll be replaced pretty sharpish. Bis spaeter!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Checking in
Things have been going quite well over the past few weeks :) Yes, I have stopped my cycling to and from the city, but that has opened up much more of an opportunity to actually do some more structured stuff, such as my weekly TT attempts, which are currently going quite well. I'm possibly holding back a bit too much on these, but I'll leave it for another while to start pushing harder earlier.
One huge knock on effect that I've noticed since my commute is that I'm much more able to recover form a given level of exertion, both when I've finished, and also during a session. This is most noticeable in running. Formerly, I struggled through 7 km and was quite out of breath after it, no matter how slowly I tried to take it. Now, however, I can actually slow down a little bit and my heart rate will correspondingly slow, which I find a fantastic aid to my efforts :D
As such, I'm much more motivated to get out and do some running at the moment. I've been going at least twice a week, which is good going for me, and I've even had to invest in a second pair of shorts! I also completed my longest run yet at the weekend; a paltry 11.5 km, but that's well over the 8.5 that it previously was, set the week before... I reckon at this stage that I would be able for my half marathon goal (to finish, at least) by the end of September, and I might actually have a good time in one, were I to actually run one, by the end of October. Which fits in nicely with The Plan.
I feel like I've cheated on this, however. I mean, I didn't run for months this year, and now I'm actually able to run distances, albeit quite slowly. I'm running 10 km at a lower pace than a lot of people run marathons, which is somewhat disheartening. However, this is where that training thing comes in, so hopefully that'll pick up again.
I mentioned last time (I think) that I've found a new rifle club that looks excellent. If I didn't, well, I have now! I went out to them last night, as it was meant to be their first night back after the Summer break, but they appeared to be still closed :( So, either the calendar was wrong, or they left early and went to the pub. Based on my previous experiences of rifle clubs, either are totally possible. So, back out when I'm back from Ireland and we'll get cracking. Too late for Cardiff, unfortunately, but there's always the British Nationals next Spring, as well as some longer term goals for smallbore.
Also, as you may have guessed from above/heard I'm back around Ireland next week, so if I haven't already been talking to you about it, pint at the weekend? It is a competition weekend with a 3x20 and a prone match, but what the hell :P Later!
One huge knock on effect that I've noticed since my commute is that I'm much more able to recover form a given level of exertion, both when I've finished, and also during a session. This is most noticeable in running. Formerly, I struggled through 7 km and was quite out of breath after it, no matter how slowly I tried to take it. Now, however, I can actually slow down a little bit and my heart rate will correspondingly slow, which I find a fantastic aid to my efforts :D
As such, I'm much more motivated to get out and do some running at the moment. I've been going at least twice a week, which is good going for me, and I've even had to invest in a second pair of shorts! I also completed my longest run yet at the weekend; a paltry 11.5 km, but that's well over the 8.5 that it previously was, set the week before... I reckon at this stage that I would be able for my half marathon goal (to finish, at least) by the end of September, and I might actually have a good time in one, were I to actually run one, by the end of October. Which fits in nicely with The Plan.
I feel like I've cheated on this, however. I mean, I didn't run for months this year, and now I'm actually able to run distances, albeit quite slowly. I'm running 10 km at a lower pace than a lot of people run marathons, which is somewhat disheartening. However, this is where that training thing comes in, so hopefully that'll pick up again.
I mentioned last time (I think) that I've found a new rifle club that looks excellent. If I didn't, well, I have now! I went out to them last night, as it was meant to be their first night back after the Summer break, but they appeared to be still closed :( So, either the calendar was wrong, or they left early and went to the pub. Based on my previous experiences of rifle clubs, either are totally possible. So, back out when I'm back from Ireland and we'll get cracking. Too late for Cardiff, unfortunately, but there's always the British Nationals next Spring, as well as some longer term goals for smallbore.
Also, as you may have guessed from above/heard I'm back around Ireland next week, so if I haven't already been talking to you about it, pint at the weekend? It is a competition weekend with a 3x20 and a prone match, but what the hell :P Later!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Quick update
The last while has been pretty solid for me. I've not been doing any long distance stuff, but that's not terribly important at the moment. I've gotten a lot of work done on shorter, higher intensity things from my commute :) There's a really nice run of flat road out from the city that's normally pretty empty of cyclists, so I can really give it a bit of a go. I've started building up my speed to top out around the 38-40 mark just before I hit my final set of lights just outside Garching. I've also managed to time this right on a few occasions to roll through these, which was very nice. Normally not, though, it's just a bit too much effort.
Unfortunately, my nice long commute is finished as of today :( So no more enforced 38 km per day any more. It was fun, if a lot frustrating at times! This has, however, opened up more doors for training :)
A knock on effect of my prolonged efforts on the fixie seems to be that my running and heart rate recovery has improved greatly over the last while. Which is odd, seeing as how I only went for a run last weekend and then another one this weekend. I have no idea how long it's been other than that. A few months, I think... Anyway, not to dwell on the past, those runs went quite well, I have to say. I've managed to run the full circuit, looping around to the forest and then back in the long way. It's only 8 km or so, but the longest I've ever actually run, I would think, certainly for a continuous time. I've mapped out a 10 km course as well which I'm going to give a go at this weekend, as well as another mid week session. Now, I know, TWO whole running sessions in a week is a lot, but I'll try to go easy :P
Finally, although my commute has fallen (by a staggering 33 km/day) a new opportunity rises from the ashes; I now have the time to think about rifle training again. My German has also improved to the point that if people speak slowly and clearly that I can understand most of what they're saying, which is good! I've contacted a club not that far from here that have excellent facilities for air and smallbore (3p included). They're home to some national and world champion shooters, so I'm going to take my chances with them for the time being. Most of Germany seems to be on holidays at the moment, but they're back in September. So, I'll either get in a session before I head back to Ireland for a week, or start fresh after that :)
We're finally ready to roll. Fortunately, this will all not be wasted by my heading back to Ireland. I suspect that most of you reading this already know that I'm here full time from now on. Basically, the foundations that I've laid should stand me in good stead. Where are those EOIs again....
Unfortunately, my nice long commute is finished as of today :( So no more enforced 38 km per day any more. It was fun, if a lot frustrating at times! This has, however, opened up more doors for training :)
A knock on effect of my prolonged efforts on the fixie seems to be that my running and heart rate recovery has improved greatly over the last while. Which is odd, seeing as how I only went for a run last weekend and then another one this weekend. I have no idea how long it's been other than that. A few months, I think... Anyway, not to dwell on the past, those runs went quite well, I have to say. I've managed to run the full circuit, looping around to the forest and then back in the long way. It's only 8 km or so, but the longest I've ever actually run, I would think, certainly for a continuous time. I've mapped out a 10 km course as well which I'm going to give a go at this weekend, as well as another mid week session. Now, I know, TWO whole running sessions in a week is a lot, but I'll try to go easy :P
Finally, although my commute has fallen (by a staggering 33 km/day) a new opportunity rises from the ashes; I now have the time to think about rifle training again. My German has also improved to the point that if people speak slowly and clearly that I can understand most of what they're saying, which is good! I've contacted a club not that far from here that have excellent facilities for air and smallbore (3p included). They're home to some national and world champion shooters, so I'm going to take my chances with them for the time being. Most of Germany seems to be on holidays at the moment, but they're back in September. So, I'll either get in a session before I head back to Ireland for a week, or start fresh after that :)
We're finally ready to roll. Fortunately, this will all not be wasted by my heading back to Ireland. I suspect that most of you reading this already know that I'm here full time from now on. Basically, the foundations that I've laid should stand me in good stead. Where are those EOIs again....
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Cycling update
I know I should have running in there, but I haven't had the time or motivation for any over the last while. My cycling week has increased a fair bit, not leaving me with much energy for high intensity stuff over the weekend.
As I was saying a while back, I'm doing a German course in Munich at the moment, which I'm cycling in and out to, giving me a daily total of around 35 km on the fixie, 4 days a week for roughly 150 or so there. The average speed is quite low, on account of having to travel through the city itself and being hampered by other cyclists/traffic lights. On the way back out though, I've been starting to push a bit harder. I know that once I clear the city, going at around 33 km/hr or so should get me back to Garching without having to stop at any lights. I've not quite gotten the full ~8km run, but hopefully soon :)
On a related note, it's getting dark in the evenings. Very dark. My front torch just isn't cutting it, so I'm gonna need to start looking at something a bit beefier. Given the nature of my commute and that it takes in open road, something to see with, rather than just be seen, will be required, which will probably mean spending money :( If I move into Munich at any point though, this will be money well spent and used!
I also got out for a niceish spin on Sunday. 75 km, with a nice bit of speed built up at the end. Mostly kept the last 15 km or so in the mid to high 30s, which is pretty good going (for me), especially after a substantial, eh, warm up :P I think this regular fixie thing is starting to pay off, especially in terms of my pedalling technique and working well at higher cadences.
I've been reading a bit on ultra-light touring and coming up with some ideas for using as a light touring bag. My in-sy should be (finally) on the way, so that'll serve well as a starting bag. Packing light and keeping the weight down will be top of my list. It shouldn't be too hard given that I won't be carrying a tent or medical supplies for my shorter trips to Austria and the like. I am planning ahead to next Summer, though, and thinking of some fast touring through different parts of Europe and possibly some camping, if I can work something out that will allow me to use the road bike. It's not certain, but given my light weight, anything up to 15 kg of extra bulk should be well tolerable, if I can attach it correctly. We shall see. That's a nice bit into the future :)
As I was saying a while back, I'm doing a German course in Munich at the moment, which I'm cycling in and out to, giving me a daily total of around 35 km on the fixie, 4 days a week for roughly 150 or so there. The average speed is quite low, on account of having to travel through the city itself and being hampered by other cyclists/traffic lights. On the way back out though, I've been starting to push a bit harder. I know that once I clear the city, going at around 33 km/hr or so should get me back to Garching without having to stop at any lights. I've not quite gotten the full ~8km run, but hopefully soon :)
On a related note, it's getting dark in the evenings. Very dark. My front torch just isn't cutting it, so I'm gonna need to start looking at something a bit beefier. Given the nature of my commute and that it takes in open road, something to see with, rather than just be seen, will be required, which will probably mean spending money :( If I move into Munich at any point though, this will be money well spent and used!
I also got out for a niceish spin on Sunday. 75 km, with a nice bit of speed built up at the end. Mostly kept the last 15 km or so in the mid to high 30s, which is pretty good going (for me), especially after a substantial, eh, warm up :P I think this regular fixie thing is starting to pay off, especially in terms of my pedalling technique and working well at higher cadences.
I've been reading a bit on ultra-light touring and coming up with some ideas for using as a light touring bag. My in-sy should be (finally) on the way, so that'll serve well as a starting bag. Packing light and keeping the weight down will be top of my list. It shouldn't be too hard given that I won't be carrying a tent or medical supplies for my shorter trips to Austria and the like. I am planning ahead to next Summer, though, and thinking of some fast touring through different parts of Europe and possibly some camping, if I can work something out that will allow me to use the road bike. It's not certain, but given my light weight, anything up to 15 kg of extra bulk should be well tolerable, if I can attach it correctly. We shall see. That's a nice bit into the future :)
Monday, August 9, 2010
World Cup, Munich
I've a few different topics to post up over the next while, relating to various things, but this deserves to be first I think!
Over the past while, shooting has very much taken a backseat. However, after the weekend at the WC, this has all changed. I've remembered my original purpose behind cycling, and how much I love shooting. To this end, an email has been sent to the office of the director of sport of the BSSB (in possibly my best German yet!), so hopefully that'll yield some nice dividends.
Anyway, onto the weekend itself. I don't think anything I can write here will do justice to what you see at this match. There is everyone and everything you have read, watched and wanted there. All the manufacturers, all the names we are so familiar with from Warren Potent, to Rajmond Debevech, to any other Olympic and World champion you care to mention who can still see down the sights, turning up. Seeing it all there gives a grand sense of occasion to the whole thing.
One thing I will say right now is that I am damn glad that I went to this before I even entertained the possibility of going as a competitor. There is nothing in Ireland or England to compare to this, and I've been to a few rather large matches in England. There's just a totally different scale of event here. Add to that Dave having a very casual chat with Potent about the state of his dislocated shoulder and you have a somewhat bizzare experience.
Before I go any further, I want to say well done to the Irish team that went over; Gary in prone, Ray in air rifle, and Peter in free pistol and air pistol. You were landed with a huge task and acquitted yourselves very well. Next year is the medal year :) Fair dues also to the team leader Liam, and coach Robb Stubbs for also going. Fair play especially to Dave who came over off his own back to support the team. Both him and myself will be hoping to go back sooner rather than later as competitors.
I won't talk about the shooting, there are reports online from the lads themselves about how they did. The only pics I managed to get are from the smallbore match on the Sunday. My camera decided to start beeping quite loudly when I tried to take some photos in the airgun range on Saturday :(
This pic was taken during Gary's match, not that you can tell. I have neither the camera nor the knowldge (OK, mostly the latter) to take a good shooting pic with the huge contrast required. Look at the range, though; beautifully lit, regulation flags, netting, mown lawns. Baffles for 3p, and to keep the light out of shooters' faces as much as possible. It's a range designed for high scores, which were, I must say, astonishing. Normally in Munich, one could expect a 597 with maybe some inner ten countback to make the final. Not so this time. 598 and 599 only. Even the threshold for the qualifier was 591, which is well up there. Unfortunately, this means it'll be slightly harder to get through to the match next year for us Irische, but I'm sure at least some of us will manage it.
So yeah, fantastic weekend all around. Great shooting, great fun. Also, getting to talk to Heinrich Bleiker about his oh so nice barrelled actions was pretty cool. They are so tempting, but just outside what can be tolerated, investment-wise. For the moment. Since everything was there, I could get a good comparison of each brand, what they felt like, what the action was like, the balance, etc. I'll stick up another post on my thoughts about each, I think :)
Over the past while, shooting has very much taken a backseat. However, after the weekend at the WC, this has all changed. I've remembered my original purpose behind cycling, and how much I love shooting. To this end, an email has been sent to the office of the director of sport of the BSSB (in possibly my best German yet!), so hopefully that'll yield some nice dividends.
Anyway, onto the weekend itself. I don't think anything I can write here will do justice to what you see at this match. There is everyone and everything you have read, watched and wanted there. All the manufacturers, all the names we are so familiar with from Warren Potent, to Rajmond Debevech, to any other Olympic and World champion you care to mention who can still see down the sights, turning up. Seeing it all there gives a grand sense of occasion to the whole thing.
One thing I will say right now is that I am damn glad that I went to this before I even entertained the possibility of going as a competitor. There is nothing in Ireland or England to compare to this, and I've been to a few rather large matches in England. There's just a totally different scale of event here. Add to that Dave having a very casual chat with Potent about the state of his dislocated shoulder and you have a somewhat bizzare experience.
Before I go any further, I want to say well done to the Irish team that went over; Gary in prone, Ray in air rifle, and Peter in free pistol and air pistol. You were landed with a huge task and acquitted yourselves very well. Next year is the medal year :) Fair dues also to the team leader Liam, and coach Robb Stubbs for also going. Fair play especially to Dave who came over off his own back to support the team. Both him and myself will be hoping to go back sooner rather than later as competitors.
I won't talk about the shooting, there are reports online from the lads themselves about how they did. The only pics I managed to get are from the smallbore match on the Sunday. My camera decided to start beeping quite loudly when I tried to take some photos in the airgun range on Saturday :(
So yeah, fantastic weekend all around. Great shooting, great fun. Also, getting to talk to Heinrich Bleiker about his oh so nice barrelled actions was pretty cool. They are so tempting, but just outside what can be tolerated, investment-wise. For the moment. Since everything was there, I could get a good comparison of each brand, what they felt like, what the action was like, the balance, etc. I'll stick up another post on my thoughts about each, I think :)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Update
So it's been another long while since a post. To be honest, not much out of the ordinary has happened, no epic climbs or long distances.
What has happened is my German course has started. What this means (aside from the fact that I might actually learn some more of the language) is that I have a 17 km each way commute four days a week, which I'm doing on the fixie. It's been getting pretty much all of the kilometers I've been cycling lately since I was hit at the start of the month. Not cos the new bike is broken or anything, more just circumstances. I trust that Munich is a low crime city, but maybe not low enough to leave a full carbon fiber bike outside for a few hours...
So, I basically have a commuting week of around 160 km, which is nice. I've only actually hit that once, for a few reasons, but it should bounce up again from next week. Max distance in the last month was 225 in a week, the week we had out betriebausflug in work, which meant a few of us did 65 km (with me on the fixie) around some lakes and the river Isar. It was a fabulous day to be out on the bike, with some nice small climbs in (which I somehow managed on the fixie, much to everybody's incredulity).
On a somewhat different note, this weekend sees the target shooting world cup come to Munich :) I've got a weekend ticket to watch the matches and any finals that are on, which should be good. Not to mention that the GB and Irish teams have arranged to meet up :) Should be a good weekend!
What has happened is my German course has started. What this means (aside from the fact that I might actually learn some more of the language) is that I have a 17 km each way commute four days a week, which I'm doing on the fixie. It's been getting pretty much all of the kilometers I've been cycling lately since I was hit at the start of the month. Not cos the new bike is broken or anything, more just circumstances. I trust that Munich is a low crime city, but maybe not low enough to leave a full carbon fiber bike outside for a few hours...
So, I basically have a commuting week of around 160 km, which is nice. I've only actually hit that once, for a few reasons, but it should bounce up again from next week. Max distance in the last month was 225 in a week, the week we had out betriebausflug in work, which meant a few of us did 65 km (with me on the fixie) around some lakes and the river Isar. It was a fabulous day to be out on the bike, with some nice small climbs in (which I somehow managed on the fixie, much to everybody's incredulity).
On a somewhat different note, this weekend sees the target shooting world cup come to Munich :) I've got a weekend ticket to watch the matches and any finals that are on, which should be good. Not to mention that the GB and Irish teams have arranged to meet up :) Should be a good weekend!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Long day.
Warning; Incredibly long post with no pics!
I had a nice day out planned; lovely flat 110 km to fully recover from last weekend. However, it was not to be. About one kilometer from the flat, I came up behind a car, which then stopped in the middle of the road. Thinking this odd, I moved up around it (on the inside). Suddenly, a nice strong engine rev told me I was going down. I went down. Now, normally, this would be totally my fault, having moved around. However, there were no indicators flashing, before or afterwards (yes, I checked, instincts and all that), and the fact that I was almost clear of the car means I was well visible, had he checked.
The conversation afterwards was somewhat interesting;
Driver; You were going too fast.
Me; No, I wasn't. (10 km/hr)
I didn't see your indicators.
Driver; ...
*motions to wife to check side of car*
Me; is it ok? (somewhat incredulously)
Driver; It is ok. *stares at me*
*Gets back into car and drives off*
It was really weird. I mean, he just kept looking at me. I dunno if he was expecting an apology or what, but he certainly wasn't getting it. I was a hell of a lot more concerned about any damage to me and the bike. Very odd experience.
As it turns out, most things were ok. I have a few scrapes, a bit of road rash, but nothing huge. The bike was a little worse off; wheel a few mm out of true, rear derailleur took a bit of a knock, getting me worried about needing a new one. An hour's work learning how to true a wheel and that problem was solved, and some time reindexing the RD had that sorted. It's possibly a little out of alignment, but it shifts fine for the moment. I'll get a tool to adjust it properly at some point.
So, what have we learned;
Don't assume a motorist won't turn, despite lack of indicators.
Don't pass up the inside when they're stopped, they're liable to do anything. Also, it leaves you somewhat exposed and also leaves a lot of the blame, or at least potential for it, on you.
The first one is something that I've never encountered before. To me, if you don't have the indicators on, you're not turning, and that's what I would assume applies across the board. So, after seeing the situation of a motorist stopped in the middle of the road, with no oncoming traffic, no signals, I did what seemed most natural and moved up on the side with the most space. Unfortunately, this was the side he was turning. Could easily have been the other side, just got unlucky today.
On the second, I probably should have stopped behind him. That said, one doesn't have to think too hard for reasons that somebody would arbitrarily stop in the middle of the road. I don't know enough about the ROTR in Ireland, never mind Germany, to know if I would have been held at fault in this situation. Yes, I moved around from the back, but it's not like I was invisible. He had no indicators on and almost certainly didn't bother to check for anybody coming from behind.
The main thing that P***ed me off about the whole thing was the accusation that it was my fault for going too fast. Which is utter crap. GPS data shows that I was, at most, doing about 12 km/hr on that street, a lot less when I was behind him. I was well alongside the car before he started to turn; there was nothing I could have done at any speed.
Anyway, excitement aside, it turned out to be a not too bad day all in all. I did around 40 km on the fixie, heading into Munich to find where my German course is on for the next two months and taking a nice scenic route back out along the river and through the English Gardens. Also, I now know how to true wheels, which is one of the few things that I didn't know how to do. I think the only thing that I haven't done/been shown how to do is replacing a headset, but there's a specific tool for that, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Maintaining one's own bike is a lot of fun!
Finally, adding up my total distances so far this year, I've recorded just over 1600 km so far. Which isn't exactly impressive, but should ramp up pretty fast over the next few months. I should have about 6000 done by the end of the year, all going well. I'm already over the euro/km limit for my bikes, so the next goal is adding in all the other crap that comes with them and reducing the costs then :) Next year will see my price/km travelled come down nicely.
So yeah, that's about it. Hopefully the commute to Munich will go well for the week. And that I'll be able to handle the 34 odd km four days a week, on top of normal work and a long weekend spin!
I had a nice day out planned; lovely flat 110 km to fully recover from last weekend. However, it was not to be. About one kilometer from the flat, I came up behind a car, which then stopped in the middle of the road. Thinking this odd, I moved up around it (on the inside). Suddenly, a nice strong engine rev told me I was going down. I went down. Now, normally, this would be totally my fault, having moved around. However, there were no indicators flashing, before or afterwards (yes, I checked, instincts and all that), and the fact that I was almost clear of the car means I was well visible, had he checked.
The conversation afterwards was somewhat interesting;
Driver; You were going too fast.
Me; No, I wasn't. (10 km/hr)
I didn't see your indicators.
Driver; ...
*motions to wife to check side of car*
Me; is it ok? (somewhat incredulously)
Driver; It is ok. *stares at me*
*Gets back into car and drives off*
It was really weird. I mean, he just kept looking at me. I dunno if he was expecting an apology or what, but he certainly wasn't getting it. I was a hell of a lot more concerned about any damage to me and the bike. Very odd experience.
As it turns out, most things were ok. I have a few scrapes, a bit of road rash, but nothing huge. The bike was a little worse off; wheel a few mm out of true, rear derailleur took a bit of a knock, getting me worried about needing a new one. An hour's work learning how to true a wheel and that problem was solved, and some time reindexing the RD had that sorted. It's possibly a little out of alignment, but it shifts fine for the moment. I'll get a tool to adjust it properly at some point.
So, what have we learned;
Don't assume a motorist won't turn, despite lack of indicators.
Don't pass up the inside when they're stopped, they're liable to do anything. Also, it leaves you somewhat exposed and also leaves a lot of the blame, or at least potential for it, on you.
The first one is something that I've never encountered before. To me, if you don't have the indicators on, you're not turning, and that's what I would assume applies across the board. So, after seeing the situation of a motorist stopped in the middle of the road, with no oncoming traffic, no signals, I did what seemed most natural and moved up on the side with the most space. Unfortunately, this was the side he was turning. Could easily have been the other side, just got unlucky today.
On the second, I probably should have stopped behind him. That said, one doesn't have to think too hard for reasons that somebody would arbitrarily stop in the middle of the road. I don't know enough about the ROTR in Ireland, never mind Germany, to know if I would have been held at fault in this situation. Yes, I moved around from the back, but it's not like I was invisible. He had no indicators on and almost certainly didn't bother to check for anybody coming from behind.
The main thing that P***ed me off about the whole thing was the accusation that it was my fault for going too fast. Which is utter crap. GPS data shows that I was, at most, doing about 12 km/hr on that street, a lot less when I was behind him. I was well alongside the car before he started to turn; there was nothing I could have done at any speed.
Anyway, excitement aside, it turned out to be a not too bad day all in all. I did around 40 km on the fixie, heading into Munich to find where my German course is on for the next two months and taking a nice scenic route back out along the river and through the English Gardens. Also, I now know how to true wheels, which is one of the few things that I didn't know how to do. I think the only thing that I haven't done/been shown how to do is replacing a headset, but there's a specific tool for that, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Maintaining one's own bike is a lot of fun!
Finally, adding up my total distances so far this year, I've recorded just over 1600 km so far. Which isn't exactly impressive, but should ramp up pretty fast over the next few months. I should have about 6000 done by the end of the year, all going well. I'm already over the euro/km limit for my bikes, so the next goal is adding in all the other crap that comes with them and reducing the costs then :) Next year will see my price/km travelled come down nicely.
So yeah, that's about it. Hopefully the commute to Munich will go well for the week. And that I'll be able to handle the 34 odd km four days a week, on top of normal work and a long weekend spin!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)