Tomorrow morning I will transfer the proceeds of the registration fees, sponsorship and donations that were raised on the Fei Sheehy Challenge.

A total of €11,512.62 was collected so that means that each of the following 5 beneficiaries will receive €2,302.52

- Paediatric Unit South Tipperary General Hospital
- Make-A-Wish Foundation
- Cappagh Hospital Foundation
- South East Mountain Rescue and 
- Mountain Meitheal

A HUGE thank you to all those who registered, participated, fund raised, donated and had any hand, act or part in the smooth organisation and running of the event. It's absolutely fantastic that we can give a little back, doing something that we love. Massive credit to you all.

I spent yesterday reflecting on the previous three days and tidying up a few challenge related loose ends. I was tired. The caffeine buzz from the energy gel was finally wearing off.

I knew I had to write something but I didn't know where to start. There's no doubt in my mind that I'm a bit obsessed with this hill walking lark. Is it a good obsession? I don't know.

Johnny made me smile (he always does) after arriving on Galtymore on Saturday. The weather was miserable and he said that the only way he got up was to keep telling himself "Don't look up. Don't look up...." He (jokingly) reckoned that I was going to cure a lot of people of their walking 'sickness' after the three days. From the messages and comments I've been getting since, we're all still infected.

Friday morning was overcast in Clonmel. The setting of Raheen House Hotel was as beautiful as ever though. As the bus made its way to Dungarvan the skies cleared. Those that hadn't walked the Comeragh's before were going to be in for a scenic treat.

I thought that walkers would take it handy on day one as it was a step into the unknown, in terms of fitness and endurance, for most. Foolish me, the handbrake was off on the track up to Crohaun.

At Coumfea, the vast majority of walkers headed for Carrignagower and Knockanaffrin Ridge. I had thought they all might have elected to go via the Nire Car Park and save a bit of energy. Again, I was wrong. They could 'cross' the mountain ranges any way they wanted to. Go from point A to point B with no checkpoints in between. If they could make it easier on themselves by navigating a certain route, fair play to them.

Water was running low, or gone, by the time walkers reached the Holy Year Cross. It was hot; and it's hard to balance the quantity and weight for long distance hikes. Your spirit doesn't sink though, as you've got entertaining company all the way home.

My heart sank when I saw the forecast for Saturday. We were going to get destroyed. Were Met Eireann wrong? Was YR.NO wrong? Between 10mm and 14mm of rain!!?Seriously!!? They couldn't be right. I put two coats in the bag.

I wondered who wouldn't show up after seeing the forecast. They were all there in a cold and dreary Anglesboro and we had a few more participants. I'm not mad; because all these other walkers couldn't be mad too. Again, by the time we got to Cahir the sky looked better.

It was a tough day in the Galty's but thankfully we didn't get all the rain. Maybe we had a little  guardian angel looking after us. I told Johnny and Mary that if we met anyone on Galtymore, who asked where we were coming from, to tell them Dungarvan. It wouldn't have been a fib.

Now, I've heard that there was a guy playing the bagpipes at the end of the Galty Challenge one year. But, we were treated to the sounds of Thin Lizzy and AC DC, courtesy of a biker convention. The girls were there to greet us in 'the field' and had homemade scones and chocolates to give us a boost. The girls are great. All walkers arrive home safe. It is so comforting from an organisational point of view to have competent and self-sufficient walkers on the mountain.

Day three would bring us to Ballyporeen for sign-in and then the bus to Keane's Bridge where we would be set loose on the Knockmealdown's.  A goat and a sheep walked casually by us, on the main street in the village, as we congregated. Hill walkers everywhere.

It was another good day, weather wise. Two showers and the sun beating down at its strongest when you were climbing to 630m from the Baylough car park. It’s always at its hottest when you have to exert yourself that little bit more.

David was on fire. Taking in three summits that were surplus to requirements. Why? Because that's how he rolls. All the navigational strategies and tactics, in reducing distance and height gain, for us lesser walking mortals would be for nought. He'd be home first anyway.

I walked alone from Knockclugga to Ballyporeen. Bridie had told me to walk on while she got something out of her rucksack. I saw Pavel and Andy off to my left and I was slightly ahead of them so I decided to put the boot down. I was thinking of Fei and I know she would have been urging me on. I was walking hard into my home town with tears in my eyes. I was glad I was on my own, but I’m never alone on the hills.

This challenge was in her memory, she was a tough cookie, determined and fiercely brave. You have to be tough, determined and brave to take on a challenge like this. If you had 95kms and 4,200m height gain clocked on your boots over three days, I don't think you'll be forgetting her name very quickly.

My mother and the other ladies from the local ICA treated us to tea/coffee, sandwiches and cakes while we relaxed and reflected on the three days. No signs of tiredness, that would come tomorrow.

I’m not going to do a thank you list of people and businesses. I’m sure to leave a few out and I don’t want to offend anyone. From the initial idea to closing the doors at the community hall in Ballyporeen there were many many supporters. Suffice to say, if I spoke or wrote to you about this, you helped me. Thank You.

The feedback to date has been fantastic and I’m very humbled by your kind and wonderful comments. There’s no doubt about it, I just love a challenging hillwalk and the people that participate and push themselves. If you know someone who works for Johnson & Johnson, tell them they're welcome for the spike in sales of Compeed.

Please leave some feedback in the comments section.

Participant List

Martha Beardmore, Pat Beardmore, Pavel Bodi, Luke Bourke, Kevin Bowen, David Browne, Seamus Dorney, Steven Forde, Connor Hackett, Dorina Iacov, Kieran Johnson, Sinéad Johnson, Sinéad Keogh, David Kiely, Liam McNally, Gerry McVeigh, Paula Mollohan, Michael Moroney, Frank Nash, Josephine O’Brien, John O’Connell, Mary O’Connell, Bridie O’Connor, Josephine O’Donnell, Noreen O’Halloran, Andy Owens, Ken Quinlivan, Niall Quinlivan, Michael Rea, Owen Ryan, Gerard Sheehy.  

Sign-In/Sign-Out and Stand-By

Margo Kelly, Martha Beradmore, Tom Lyons, Michael Desmond, Pat Fahey, Sinéad McGrath.

Registration is about to close and I was just looking through the list of walkers who have paid their money to participate.


In my short time at this activity I have met two thirds of them. Of the remaining third, I ‘know’ some of them through Twitter and FaceBook, some I know nothing about, but I am so looking forward to meeting them all in the flesh.


When I was getting the challenge off the ground I was thinking that it would be good to have a ‘celebrity’ involved, that might participate in the challenge. When I read through the list of participants now, I’m thinking; it would have been a bad idea, as it would have taken from the remarkable walkers/athletes we have amongst our ranks.


I have nothing but admiration for those who have undertaken this challenge. They’re gutsy triers full of quiet passion and determination. It’s irrelevant how many days they’ll walk, as I know they’ll have their own personal ambition/target on the day/s.


We have three women taking part that were first home in three of the toughest day challenges on the hill walking calendar: Comeragh, Tom Crean & Maamturk. We have men whose names will always feature in the top 5 home taking part, plus ‘the guy with the ponytail’ (as those that don’t know his name call him). We have CHP(er)s and hill walking globe trotters. We have our very own ‘Scorsese’ of the mountains. We have the man that calls The Mournes his “gym” and another man with no cartilage in his right knee. There's also the guy that did the Mourne 7 7s on six 'Wagon Wheels' in a very respectable time. I’ll tell ya folks, it’s a regular ‘Who’s Who?’ of the hill walking fraternity.


Walking at this level isn’t easy. It’s pretty damn difficult. But it’s the strenuous and tough nature of it that makes the activity and people great. So, take a bow you fine people.


If I may adapt a few of Alfred Wainwright’s words : We do it for us. We like it. We’re good at it. We’re alive in it.


I can’t wait!!!

Hi all, Laurann O’Reilly here again. To those of you who missed out on the first blog, over the next few weeks I will be giving you some pointers on how to nutritionally prepare for training and large challenge events

I hope you enjoyed my first blog where I mentioned the 3 Keys to nutrition in training for a challenge or an event (Type, Size & Timing). I discussed in detail the types of food we should be eating and how to strategically eat these foods to get the best out of our training and events.

In this blog I will discuss how to distinguish the correct portion sizes for you.


                                              Portion Sizes for Athletes

Before we can determine what your portion size is we have to work out how much food you actually need. As each individual is different we all have different portion size requirements. These are based on our weight and physical activity level.

In order to work out what your nutritional requirement you use the below format:

Carbohydrates: 5-10g/kg body weight per day (Depending on intensity)

Proteins: 1.2 – 1.7g/kg body weight per day (Depending on intensity)

Fats:  1g/kg body weight per day. Try keep fat to this level and choose good fats including plenty of oily fish, nuts, seeds, olive oil (for cold e.g. salads) and rapeseed or coconut oil for cooking.


                                                    Your Portion Size

Some easy techniques for understanding portion sizes are

1) Weigh your food: If you’re very serious about your training or sports you may like to do this

2) Use props to understand portion sizes for a plate for instance:

• The palm of your hand (or just over) is a portion of protein.
  
  
• Your whole had made in a fist should be a minimum portion of vegetables
  
  
• One to two tennis balls should be your carbohydrate portion (for instance potatoes, pasta or rice)
  
  
• One match box is a portion of cheese.
  
  

Now you know about the types of food to be having and portion sizes, have a little practice with these yourselves and in my next blog I will discuss the importance of the timing of your food in training or preparing for an endurance event.

Should you have any questions or if you would prefer to have your own plan made up, please feel free to contact me

Laurann O’Reilly on 085-7337432 or email personalnutritionandhealth@gmail.com

Website: http://www.personalnutritionandhealth.com/

Copyright of Personal Nutrition & Health by Laurann O’Reilly

Sign-in/Finish on the first day (1st August 2014) will be at Raheen House, Raheen Road, Clonmel. There's a small bit of parking available on Raheen Road but there's a free car park located at S 209 224, just off the Old Waterford Road.

If you walk out of the car park, turn left, walk over the bridge to the roundabout and then go right. Raheen House is on your left. It's 0.3 of a km from the car park to Raheen House.

Attached is a suggested route to walk back down to Raheeh House from the Holy Year Cross located at S 209 203.  

My name is Laurann O’Reilly and I’m a nutritionist in Tipperary, over the next few weeks I will be giving you some nutritional pointers on how to nutritionally prepare for training and large challenge events, such as the Fei Sheehy Challenge this August.

For those of you who are experienced in the area of Hill Walking, you are probably now aware of the intense training and the demands that your body is put under during large challenges.  However, you may not be aware that nutrition plays a significant role in areas such as fitness, stamina, performance, endurance, hydration and recovery.

So I will begin with the basics.

There are 3 Keys to achieving the best from our food when training or completing a challenge and they are.

Type: This is extremely important as different foods have different functions. For instance we need carbohydrates for energy (fuel). Protein for repair of cells and recovery post work out and we require a certain amount of good fats to function and also to help in the absorption of our nutrients. We also require adequate hydration for which there are also different types which I will discuss.

Size: The size of our portions is also important but we all have different requirements. I will discuss how to work out the best portion size for you.

Timing: The timing of food, believe it or not is critical. We need to eat certain type of food at certain times as different foods digest at different rates and we need a constant flow of energy, especially when participating in an endurance challenge. The timing of when we eat certain foods also has an effect on recovery rates, which again I will discuss in more depth with you.


Type of Food

Today I will just discuss the type of food, namely the ‘macronutrients’, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, along their role in both your training and within a challenge.

Carbohydrates

These are our fuel and source of energy. What you may not know is that you can manipulate this source of nutrient to provide energy to you for when you need it ;).  

We can do this in 3 ways

1) Fast Releasing Carbohydrates: These carbohydrates are usually high in sugar, readily digestible and give an immediate source of energy to the body. These are useful for before an intense training session or an event to ‘kick start’ your activity or to give you an extra boost of energy during a heavy training session or event. Examples of ‘fast releasing carbohydrates’ would be white bread, white pasta, glucose energy drinks/gels.

2) Slow Releasing Carbohydrates: These are usually wholemeal/wholegrain foods, these are slowly digested in the body over a longer period of time 2-4 hours and for this reason, they are the next source of energy when your fast releasing carbohydrate source of fuel runs out. They are great for stabilising blood sugar levels and keeping a constant flow of energy. Examples of ‘slow releasing carbohydrates’ are brown/wholemeal/wholegrain bread, brown rice, brown pasta, quinoa.

3) Body Glycogen Stores: In each of our body’s we have an ‘energy reserve’, this is in case we do not have access to food or if we run out of energy from food. Normally when we take in carbohydrates  (glucose) the carbohydrates get stored in our body as ‘glycogen’. Here is the great part, if you are participating in an endurance event you can build up your glycogen stores in advance by eating plenty of nutritious carbohydrates 3-4 days in advance. Great foods for building up your glycogen stores would be potatoes, sweet potatoes, pasta and rice.

Protein: This is extremely important as it helps to build muscle making you stronger and improving your endurance. It also plays a serious role in recovery. When we think about it, in training we damage our muscle to make it stronger and then we damage it again to make it stronger and so on. If we do not have good quality protein we cannot make the muscle stronger and it takes longer for it to repair. This whole ‘cycle’ is known as ‘recovery’.  They key is getting a range of good quality protein in the source of lean meat, eggs, cheese, milk, nuts, seeds and sometimes from good quality protein supplements.

Fats: Believe it or not we actually need fats in our diet but the right type of fats that is (good fats). These ‘good fats’ as I call them are good for hair, skin, nails (not really of help for your event), but great for concentration, circulation, joints, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure as well as the absorption of your fat soluble vitamins A,D,E,K (which are responsible for bone health). The good fats also help to slow the rate at which food leaves the stomach. ‘Good Fats’ include oily fish (salmon, mackerel, trout, sardines, herring & kippers), nuts & seeds and olives. Olive oil is great for cold salads and rapeseed oil is great for cooking.

Now you know the importance of the types of foods when it comes to training and endurance events. In my next blog I will discuss how to distinguish the correct portion sizes for you.

Should you have any questions or if you would prefer to have your own plan made up, please feel free to contact me Laurann O’Reilly on 085-7337432 or email personalnutritionandhealth@gmail.com

http://www.personalnutritionandhealth.com/

Copyright of Personal Nutrition & Health by Laurann O’Reilly

This is the finish of the walk down to Ballyporeen on the third day of the challenge.

The Grid Reference of the gate, where Knocknabrona meets the wood, is R 95050 10216 

Try and avoid, what looks like, the more direct route via the river at Kilcarroon. 

Feast your eyes on this part of the Comeraghs, courtesy of @GerryMcVeigh , which you can take in as part of the challenge.  Knockshesgowna, Knockanaffrin, The Gap & Carrignagower - delectable names, exquisite scenery & heavenly walking.