The Second Ten Miler

Around 14 of us took off this morning at 8am, for another 10 mile run. This was only my second attempt at this distance, and after indulging myself over the last week on Holidays, I was a little bit apprehensive.  Ray wasn't with us this morning, but I believe he's burning up the roads on the continent, with all the running he's doing over there.  John set the route, in that we would run out the Ross road for 5 miles and then turn around and run back. The unfortunate thing for the other runners, was that John stayed running with me, and I was of course, lagging behind the others, so when we'd gone the 5 miles, the rest of the group had gone a good bit further. John let a shout and we turned around and ran home, automatically promoting me to leading the field! I felt strong on the way home, and was able to pick up the pace a bit, and I finished the 10 miles in a time of 1 hour 43 min exactly, 1 minute and 44 seconds quicker than last week. So the progress curve is still pointing up.

I've decided that I'm going to enter for the Dublin City Marathon in October. I was chatting John this morning about what sort of training would I need to do, to be able to finish it. His advice was, once more, fairly comprehensive, but the gist of it is, to continue what I'm doing, but step up the long runs on the weekend.  I've 12 weeks to the Marathon, and The Tullamore Harriers Half Marathon will fit perfectly into my schedule. In fact it's a great spring board, as I'd now be very disappointed if I couldn't finish the Half Marathon, due to the progress I've made to date. I'm completely surprised by that, as only 5 or 6 weeks ago, I thought trying to run a half marathon with only 10 weeks training, was a little bit bonkers.

I've included a few pictures below. The first one is of Hugo and Myself getting out of the sea, after cooling off, having completed a run. I was trying to recreate the Daniel Craig pose from James Bond, but I'm not going to show you those attempts. I guess the camera can only take what's in front of it, and what was in front of it was far from Daniel Craig!  The other picture's are a poor attempt by me to try and capture some of the scenery from where we were running. It honestly looked much better in real life.  Until Tue, Slán.

The Ring of Kerry could put you in a Hoop!

The running is still on schedule even if the writing had fallen a bit behind. My brother and myself went for a 5 km run on Wed, it took me 30 min, and Hugo went on and ran a further 3km. You might have noticed that I'm now measuring the distances in km instead of miles, this is due to the fact that I'm fitting in with Hugo's plans and that's all based on km's.

Yesterday we had another crack at the 12km route, and I ran it more sensibly, we started off slower, and I finished it without stopping. We ran it 6 min faster than Tue, and I stopped the watch when we stopped on Tue, so I was quite happy overall.

The holiday is going well, loads of cycling, swimming, surfing and paddle boating. I'm in Dingle at the moment( Dick Mack's pub to be precise). And we stopped just before Connor Pass to climb halfway up a mountain to look at a spectacular lake! There's an easy way to have a holiday and then there's this way. Don't get me wrong I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and the weather is glorious, but I'll need another holiday when I get home.

The next run I do will be on Sun morning with John and the crew in the Harriers. John and Ray have been in touch to see how I'm getting on. Much and all as I've found the training hard this week, I think I'd have found it tougher to tell the lads I hadn't been running. Anyway I'm proud to returning in better shape than I left(I hope). Picture to follow, so until Sunday, Slán.

In the Kingdom of Kerry

My family and I got down to Castlegregory yesterday evening around 5pm. It was 9pm before Hugo(my older brother) and myself got the awning set up on the caravan, and that surely deserved some holiday pints, to go with the recovery pints from Sunday. They failed to work by the way, maybe I didn't have enough!

Hugo and myself went for a run at 10am. We ran for over 80 min, but the distance was disappointing, only 12km. The route was spectacular in places, but of course that means Hills. There was also a good sea breeze blowing. When you combine these factors along with a warm sunny day, you might be able to understand why I'm a little bit like a Lobster this evening. I meant to go back and take some pictures to post on the blog, but I was wrecked all day. We went for a swim after the run and spent the rest of day playing with the kids, eating and sleeping.

I'm writing this while having a meal at the dog track in Tralee. The reception at the campsite is not great, so my next few posts might be a bit late, and the pictures mightn't appear until next week. We're going for a 5k tomorrow, I hope I don't find it as tough as today, because for a number of reasons I really struggled today. I even stopped once, and that made it more difficult to get going again. Anyway, at least I'm clocking the miles, so until the next time, Slan.

The first Ten Miler

I got to the Harriers just before 8am, to see a bus ready for departure. For a second I thought this was another new scheme of John's. I was afraid he was going to get the bus to drop us off ten miles away, and then let us work our own way back. However, what was actually happening was a crew from the Harriers were heading to Sligo to compete in the National League round 2.

The 14 of us that were at the back gate for 8am, however, headed off on our ten mile trip, after posing for a pre-run photo. When we got to the Finger Board (about 1 mile into it) we were joined by two others. Ray seemed to like this tactic, and suggested that we try it next week with John by saying something like "We'll meet you at Mucklagh, don't bother to wait for us to start!" I wouldn't have much faith in it working, especially after posting it here on the blog.

The pace for the first 3 miles was around 10.15 per mile, which was a lot faster than I'd intended to go. The group was then split in 3 over the next few miles, with the last group consisting of me and my minder, John.  I didn't feel too bad with about 2 miles to go, and we were running at a pace slightly faster than last Sunday's 10k, and we'd run further. My breathing was also much better. Then, when we were nearly home I heard John's watch beep, signifying the 9 mile marker. I realised that we had further to go than I'd thought, and we had to run a lap of the block, and then a lap of the track to bring up the ten miles. I found that last mile quite difficult, and I haven't yet worked out if it was a mental or physical problem. Anyway, I finished the 10 miles in a time of 1hr, 44 min and 44 sec, giving an average rate of 10.28 per mile, so I'm pretty pleased with myself, although my legs are quite sore.

I'm heading off on holidays to Kerry tomorrow, for a week, and I've been in a holiday mood all weekend. I would have gone for a few pints last night, but I didn't dare risk it before the run this morning. I'm now considering an alternative treatment for my sore legs. The title of this treatment could be summed up by that great advertising slogan - "Guinness is Good for You!" I'll let you know how it works out, but I've a fair idea already. I'm looking forward to going running with my brother in Kerry, I'll post some photos over the next week, so until then, Slán.

Oh The Guilt!

Well, as you might have guessed by the absence of a post last night, I didn't go for a Wednesday run.  I've no excuse, I was home in plenty of time and I didn't feel too tired, but I was certainly very hot. So I called my wife, and we went for two lovely, cold, early pints in Lynch's. It was only this morning as I was going to work, that I started to feel I should have gone for the run before going for the pints. I haven't felt this guilty since I ate all my Mammy's favourite biscuits and blamed it on Emmet (my younger brother).

I suppose because of that I was determined to put in an extra effort tonight, and I did. We ran 3 x 2 miles with a 2 minute rest, each time going faster. We ran the last 2 miles in 19 min. Then I went up to the rugby club to referee a tag match, which lasts for 40 min, So that brought the total time on my feet to around the 2 hour mark today. There was a good contingent training tonight in the hot weather. Jason Donegan was leading the way with his comfortable stride. He looks such a natural runner, it's a style I might try and copy.

We're going for a 10 mile run on Sun. It'll be the first time Ray and myself have ran that far, so I hope it goes OK. We're leaving at 8am, and there are a good few of the gang running as well. John will have to set up a water station every 100m for Ray. He guzzled gallons again tonight. He may give up the salty rashers for lunch I think. Until Sunday, Slán.

Running in Heat

By God that was a tough run tonight.  I was so close to ringing Jon and Ray to tell them I couldn't make training tonight, I really didn't want to go, and I had a good excuse, I've been up at 4am for the last two mornings, and only got home at 8pm last night and 6pm this evening.  I was quite tired, and the temperature is hotter today, than any day in the last 7 years. It was the first time I've had to have a shower before training, I'd been sweating that much.

John said we were going to go on a light run, to loosen the legs after the race on Sun, but I knew we were in trouble as soon as he pulled out a belt which carried water bottles. He'd also stashed a bottle of water on the route to refill the bottles.  It's a good job Ray drank 10 Litres of water during the day today, because he finished all of John's water, and we reckoned, if he didn't have all that water earlier, we'd need to pull a water tank behind us to keep him hydrated. We went for a seven mile run, the same seven mile run I so enjoyed the Sun before last, and we finished in 72min. That is actually quicker than we ran on that Sun, and I had no extra kick left at the end. Looking back, I'm quite happy now that I did go, but I must confess that I wanted to stop many times on the run, and it was another one of those battle of wills, that I suppose are necessary to prepare for the Half Marathon. Andy O Grady joined us for a part of the run, and he ran with me, while John and Ray were about 10 metres ahead. I'm afraid if Andy was looking for conversation he was with the wrong buddy, but I did appreciate him running beside me.

Michelle Mullaney, Ray and myself were on Midlands 103, with Will Faulkner, this morning. Will was asking us about our progress to date, and also asking Michelle about the Harriers in general. I was happy enough with how it went, although I'd have liked to get across the point that, while Ray and myself might be going on about our challenge as if it's like climbing Everest, there are loads of people in the Harriers who've started where we've started, and are now running long races regularly and quickly, which just goes to show once again that anybody can do this running lark, and get the benefits from it, if they persevere.

The Harriers posted pictures from the 10k in Mountbolus on their facebook page, I've nicked two of them. The first one show's the crew from the Harriers that ran in the race, I'm not sure if there's anyone missing, but there's bound to be a few, as such a large contingent competed, wearing the Blue and White. The second one shows me finishing the race, and although it looks like I finished ahead of Miriam Brady, I didn't, but I couldn't bring myself to show the one taken just before the finish line, as Miriam had just pipped me.  I'm not sure how training will go for the rest of the week, but I'm sure I'll tell you all about it, one way or the other, in due course. Until then Slán.

Marian Geraghty 10K

Well, as predicted it's a Personal Best, on a tough course. I finished in 62 min and 30 sec, I think. I didn't stop the stop watch on time, so I'll have to wait for official conformation. However if that time is correct, then that works out at 10 min a mile, which is a good bit faster than I'd being going in training. Ray finished about 6 minutes ahead of me, I didn't see him after the first bend. He seemed happy enough with his run, but he did find it difficult. My thinking is that if it wasn't difficult then you didn't push yourself hard enough.

I had butterflies when I got up this morning, I couldn't believe it. It was the type of butterflies I used to get before going out to play a cup match in rugby. The type where you know you've prepared well, and expect a good performance mixed with the fear that something will go wrong and you won't deliver.  There was a big turnout at the race, and it was quite a warm day. I was determined not to go off too fast, and I'm delighted that I managed my pace quite well. John was running with me, he's a one man motivation team. He carried water with him the whole way around( not for himself, but for others, mainly me!) and in the second half of the race when we started passing people who were finding the going tough, he offered some water and advice such as "look at just in front of your feet going up the hills, then it doesn't seem as far to go." and plenty of encouragement to everyone we met. I felt strong the whole way around, and never really wanted to stop. I didn't want to up my pace until the last km though, as I knew there was a long hill climb just before the finish and I had to make sure I'd be able to run up it, however after we crested the hill with about 700m left to the finish I opened my legs a bit and enjoyed running down the hill to the finish.

So three weeks in, and I'm delighted with my progress. I'm still finding it hard to believe how quickly I've gone from not being able to run 2 km to running 10k on a hilly course. I now have no doubts that I'll finish the half marathon. That is of course providing I stick with the training plan. It'll be difficult this week because of work, and then next week I'll be on holidays, so that will require extra motivation to stick to the plan. There's only 7 weeks until the half marathon though, so I can't afford to let two weeks slide, or else I'll be back where I started.

Thanks again everyone for your support, I'm getting a lot of people telling me they're enjoying the Blog, and following Ray and myself as we try to get fit. I Hope you continue to enjoy it, and perhaps if you know of someone thinking of starting running for the first time, you can point them this direction, after all if I can do it, anybody can. Until Tue night, Slan.