Running with the birds or for the birds?

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Well done O, your poor hubby.

Hope you all had a good night last night. Raging I missed it, thought I'd be whacked by the time I showered and ate so just took to the couch, then ended up awake half the night - hyper.

You missed a great night but poor Rachel and Shaz were sick so we'll have to reschedule another night soon and you MUST come:)
Congrats on a super, super Olympic(ish:() Triathlone, I really enjoyed your report. The microphone guy has no clue how close he came to becoming very intimate with his microphone when he asked you your name:D

July 2nd through 7th

This week P&D was fortunately a step back week but I turned it into somewhat of a Giant Leap back week;) with three non-running days!
A wonderful family break in Barcelona, perfect weather, a little on the cold side for the locals probabaly but perfect for us. We stayed in an apartment with a small pool up in the hills near Parc Guell and crammed a lot into the short stay. The boys are at an age now where they appreciate the sights a bit more and we really enjoyed Gaudi's influence on this city. When we were visting La Sagrada Familia the 13 year old was so inspired that he announced he is going to become an architect:)"Good Luck with trying to find a job" was what I wanted to say to him but I didn't want to destroy his imagination.
I had a really lovely run early on Tuesday morning before the excesses of food and alcohol had had a chance to sink in properly, up early and it was already 24 degrees but lots of shade from the buildings meant it was super to run in. I ran down through the city to the Olympic Village area....
hard to believe it's 20 years ago now, I was working for United Airlines at the time and I ferried lots of Americans to and from there (no sports stars, journalists, people on jollies etc).
Then along the beautiful coast for a while before heading back up home for a total of just over 11 miles:D "Hooray" I thought, "I'll get lots of runs in and be very disciplined and not eat too much....." Aaah, the innoncence of the first day on holidays:) It's like when you eat mostly fruit at the buffet breakfast and by the last day you're making straight for the pastry bar, mainlining pain au chocolats:)

Only two more runs of 4 and 6 miles, equally as enjoyable as the first, early morning and a super chance to explore the city but to be honest I felt the rest would do me good. I say rest but we did a lot of sight-seeing and the day at the waterpark must be worth a few miles.... Not that I went on too many of the scary ones, after the first one my legs were like jelly and I flew up in the air and bumped down so hard that I now have a multi-coloured bruise on my bum (insert smutty joke here:D:D). The boys were laughing at me suggesting that I should go on the slides for the toddlers so I had to pull the "I'll have you know your mother is an Ultra Runner" card;)
I also got a bit of sea swimming in, the water temperature was divine, a lot warmer than the forty foot.
All in all a super family break and I'm sure the rest will have done me good.
On the flight on the way home I was reminded that we're a long way off being parents to highly-cultured boys with a quest for sight-seeing, when asked what the best part of the holiday was they all replied "The waterpark", followed closely by ordering delicous local pastries called fartons

Monday July 9th
Happy Birthday to me:D
Dip in the 40 Foot
Recovery run 6.67 miles avg pace 8.47
Breakfast in bed, breakfast in Avoca, the post contained lots of birthday cards and a €50 voucher for Elvery’s for my 2nd place in the 5 mile race series in Phoenix park:)I had a super day and was spoiled rotten by Mr Stew and the boys.

I managed to fit in a run and dip in the sea (brrrr, very cold after the Med) before heading out for birthday drinks. Not quite back on track after the holiday, but it was my birthday.



Tuesday July 10th
45 minute lower body class
Speed session, total miles 10 including warm up and warm down.


I was up bright and early baking Guinness bread for a very important boardsie… Dory Dory was meeting us for a trip up the Sugar Loaf. We were lucky enough to have sort of clear skies and I was very impressed that DD and Mr DD managed to find the car park given the fact it took me about two years to find it when we first moved to Dublin! We were joined by a pal of mine and a special surprise boardsie to give DD an even bigger welcome and it was super, super fun. The time went by way too quickly and apart from the wind the weather was great. Not quite the Appalachian Trail but the DDs were impressed with what Wicklow had to offer.


Meno has been encouraging me to join a running club and I’ve met some of his club mates and they are all really nice but the location just won’t work for us. Mr Stew works in the IFSC so the obvious choice for us would be Crusaders.
My friend who is also running New York and I popped in to check it out, a warm welcome from everyone there and I’m going to bring the boys in tonight to see if they like it. I was dispatched off with the sub 3.30 group who were doing a warm-up and 4 X 7.15 min miles with 60 seconds rest in between followed by a cool down. I really, really enjoyed it, great fun chatting (not as much on the last mile:)) and of course I sped up at the end of each lap to knock a few seconds off my time.
I left there and ran into town to meet up with my sister who was visiting so all in all a great day’s running:)

Wednesday July 11th
BHAA 5K Ringsend
A very late night on Tuesday (but only two glasses of wine) and a busy day meant that I was really hoping for a miracle here, but you never know.....

Great organisation and lovely volunteers and we started ontime.
The course had a lot of twists and turns and there was a section at the start before we entered the park that was a bottleneck where I really slowed down so I never really felt like I got into a good pace. By the time things had spread out and I was overtaking people I pretty much felt that sub 20 was not on, the many, many sins of my holiday were coming to haunt me and with 6.27 for my first mile I really needed a miracle. I didn’t really enjoy the laps of the park and as with all 5Ks I just wanted it over. I was determined to do the best I could on the day and I passed as many as I could but I was also being overtaken at times. I was just about pulling myself together in the hope of a miraculous recovery when the hailstones started and at one stage I had my eyes closed it was so bad. Finally I was into the stadium and I heard my three boys give me a shout so I pushed on and overtook one person before crossing the line with 20.59:( on the clock. I was of course disappointed but it's my own fault; the results won’t come unless I put in the hard work and burning the candle at both ends doesn’t help either.

The boys were so cute telling me that the clock must be wrong and that I did have sub 20 (I had told them we’d get Teddy’s ice-cream on the way home if I did get it:))
Upstairs for a lovely cup of tea and the boys didn’t want to leave as there was custard creams as far as the eyes could see. I chatted with a few friends and the quiz started and I looked up to see the boys standing up front doing their best to win a prize…we won three parking tickets;)
Then it was time for the prizes, I knew I’d be low down as the standard is high at these races but the boys wanted to stay anyway. The winner was called up and I laughed as I had been chatting to him in the line for tea and I had nearly asked him was he happy with his race (I should have asked him).

I was utterly shocked to hear my name called as 2nd in my category and it made the bad run seem not so bad after all:)


I’ve a night out with the girls tomorrow (it would be rude not to have a few drinks and overeat) so after that’s over I’m going to knuckle down and start taking things seriously, Berlin is only just over 11 weeks away:eek::eek:!

Thursday July 12th
Dip in the 40 Foot (surrounded by jellyfish:eek:)
Club session; total miles 8.01 including warm-up, cool down, 4 X 5min intervals @6.45 pace with 2 min recovery jog



I brought the two junior Stews in to try out the club and about 5 minutes after we arrived the heavens opened, I was off with the marathon group at this stage so I did four of the planned fast 5 minutes and cut the session short in case the boys were miserable in the rain. I arrived back to the track to find them having a great time and I did a good few cool-down laps of the track waiting for them to finish. I was tired all day and my left ITB is very tight, probably due to too much speed work.


Friday July 13th
disastrous 8.55 miles @ 9.30 pace
This should have been an easy 6 miles recovery but my friend offered to take the boys so I headed out with the intention of trying to get my miles up close to the P&D schedule, lashing rain, wind and after about two miles in I remembered I hadn’t eaten any breakfast:(, I’m usually not too bad at running on empty in the morning but I’m assuming I overdid it a bit this week so this run was never going to be good.


Saturday July 14th
Rest Day
Late night on Friday with not too many glasses of wine as I was up early on Saturday, I spent a glorious afternoon snoozing on the sofa watching athletics and eating cake. Just what the doctor ordered:)


Sunday July 8th
21.25 mile LSR, avg pace 8.54
Mr Stew and I up bright and early, glorious, glorious run in the sunshine into town, around Ringsend, around Merrion square Park, around Stephen’s Green a few times (where I discovered a new statue of Rabindrath Tagore which is new to the park since last October) and then into Trinity. We stopped briefly and shared a bottle of lucosade sport which was delicious and then headed back home. The Police Officer on duty at the British embassy came out to chastise us for running on the road, telling us that it was dangerous for our “health and safety”:( she is, of course right but it was still early on Sunday with little or no traffic. I’m very careful about when and where I run on the road, Mr Stew on the other hand drives me mad as he appears to have a death wish and thinks he own the road (he’s one of those runners who give the rest of us a bad name), he’s lucky he’s a big guy and is hard to miss.
We picked the pace up over the last 5 miles to bring the average down a bit. On the Rock road we came across two cyclists, one of whom had come off his bike, we ran over to check on them, he was fine, a little in shock but very glad to have had his helmet on as he had gotten a nasty bump to his head.
The last four miles we spent discussing what we would eat when we got home…. We had restricted ourselves to just the lucosade on this run so we were getting tired, thirsty and hungry but before we knew we were home. My left calf was very tight throughout the run and I definitely need to do some work on it.
Another successful long run ticked off before Berlin:)


Total miles for the week 58.64:eek: 10 short of P&D plan:eek:


I plan to stick to P&D as much as possible between now and Berlin and I’m resisting the urge to find another 5K to get sub 20 (I'm hoping Jcsmum will set up a self-help group for us compulsive racers;)) and I’ve decided to wait till the Rathfarnahm 5K in September, the main goal for me is sub 3.30 in Berlin and anything else that happens along the way is a bonus. I’m racing The Bay 10K in August as the start is practically on my door step and also the 10 Mile in the Phoenix Park as I really enjoy racing there in spite of the crowds. I’m delighted to be pacing the Midlands Half Marathon in August and the Dublin Half in September so I’ve a great couple of months lined up in the run up to Berlin.


After that I’m lucky enough to be pacing Dublin Marathon (yippee:D:D:D) and then four days after that I jump on a plane to New York to run my fourth marathon Major. Life is very, very good to me:)

PaulieYifter wrote: »

What a great schedule you have mapped out.
Sorry I missed you after the 5k the other night - if I'd known you were running I'd have looked out for you - at least I know your plans now!

That was 2 5k races in 8 days for me and I'm finding them strangely addictive if grueling.

I know what you mean... I'm going through Cold Turkey at the moment and I could tell you at the drop of a hat where and when the next few 5K races are within an hour of Dublin:) It's just so completely different to the fact that you only get one chance with a marathon whereas with the 5K you can realistically try again next week. Multiple 5Ks do not fit in with a martahon plan though so my new mantra is "Must not race 5k":D and even as I type this I'm thinking of Donadea on July 27th.....

What are your plans at the moment? How did you get on in your last two 5Ks?

claralara wrote: »

Thanks for the holler yesterday evening - though I think a certain Officer might have had something to say about the wreckless hanging out the window while driving but I appreciated it.

(I'm glad you didn't see me on the latter half of the journey as I was in bloomin bits )

I always love a shout out when I am running so I'm happy to return the favour.
You looked super when we saw you, the iron tablets must be doing the trick as you were going so fast you nearly missed us:) You're not going to believe this but my middle boy told me he thought you looked like Phoebe from friends:D Do you think he has been following your log??? I asked him why he thought you looked like her and he said cos you were so smiley and happy:)

The boys and I were on our way into meet Mr Stew for our session in Crusaders, a great evening was had by all. Although we (the adults anyway) were also in bits at the end, tired legs and that heat... bad combo:(

Monday July 16th
Rest day


I had planned a recovery run but…
Lashing rain & kids off school= trip to Ikea for meatballs for lunch and lots of money spent on things that I don’t need (e.g. solar powered torch)
I love the summer holidays:)




Tuesday July 17th
AM: 30 minute spinning class
15 min abs class
Recovery run 6.29 miles
PM: Club mile intervals, total miles 7.56 including warm up and warm down.


Feeling guilty after my rest day I set the alarm to get up early and go to the gym before the boys woke. My legs felt like lead at the beginning but by the end I was buzzing. The abs class was tough as I haven’t done any core work in weeks. I’m going to make an effort to up the cross-training from now on as I really feel it helps me with recovery and injury prevention.
Recovery run of the Bay 10K route while the boys played tennis. Left calf progressing from a niggle to a worry.
The entire Stew Family headed into the club in the evening. Mr Stew and I joined everyone for a group warm-up at the track and it was great to meet up with lots of familiar faces. A nice sunny evening meant everyone was in great form. We headed over to the park for 4 X 1 mile @7.10 pace with 60 seconds rest in-between. A tough session that we both found hard, no way we would have kept going in that heat if we weren’t with the group but we felt fantastic after and the boys really enjoyed their session, we’re all signed up now and proud fully-fledged members of Crusaders:D

Wednesday July 18th
30 minute spinning class
15 min abs class
GA 9.09 miles avg pace 9.21


In spite of the fact that my left calf is still at me I really enjoyed this run, hills of Killiney in the sunshine and I listened to a really interesting Marathontalk podcast.

Thursday July 19th
AM: 45 minute kettle bell class
Recovery 6.77 miles @ 9.02 pace
Dip in the 40 Foot
PM: Intervals 5 minutes @ 6.50 pace followed by 2 minutes @ 7.30 pace X 6. Total miles including warm-up and cool down 9.86

Exhausted heading into the gym at 6.30am but again I was buzzing on the way out, I found the class tough and my arms and shoulders definitely felt it. I’m really enjoying the cross-training and before long I’ll get used to the early mornings again.
Legs felt fine on the recovery run apart from the tight calf. Fabulous jelly-fish-free swim at full tide and my legs were good as new again.
In the evening the boys and I headed into the club and I told them I might be late getting back to the track, bribed them with €1 each for the sweetie machine so I knew I could complete the session this time, half way through the session I was wishing I hadn’t bribed them, I would have loved the excuse to bail;) The group I was with gradually spread out into a few in front and a few behind me, it was so tough keeping going on my own but luckily on the last interval I was joined by a guy who had popped into a bush (a fellow runner, not some wierdo;)) I’m definitely pushing myself much more than I would on my own but I’ll need to rethink cross-training on days that I do a club session, I really should have been doing this session on somewhat fresher legs and when I look back on my combined milage for the day I see where I went wrong. My calf was fine throughout the run, tight after. Major foam rolling and I was ok again.

Friday July 20th
75 minute hot yoga class
Dip in the 40 Foot
This yoga class was like a reset button for my body, both physically and mentally:):) Followed by another glorious dip in the 40 Foot.

After overdoing it a little yesterday I’m taking another running-free day. I’ve also made an appointment with the physio on Monday as my calf is still tight.

menoscemo wrote: »

Great mileage there. I notice you are now my nearest challenger on the 1000 mile challenge. I better not slack off

Don't worry, your position is safe.....No chance of you slacking off. Plus I've just had 2 non running days. The most important thing is that I stay ahead of Ray:D

Monday July 23rd to Sunday July 28th
Not too much logging happening for a number of reasons….. tight calf, boys off school, visitors, Olympics starting….
Monday I got up bright and early and went to spinning and abs and then went to CFitz and was delighted to be told that my calf was nothing major to worry about but that I had been overdoing it (I already knew this:)). An hour and a half of pure torture and advice that I listen to my body more and take more running free days. In the car on the way home I gave myself a good telling off and promised to take two non-running days. Tuesday up early again for spinning and abs and then back again for 45 minutes of Pilates. Wednesday spinning and abs again and I decided that I had had enough rest so I stupidly (hindsight is a wonderful thing;)) headed out to do the 16 miles with 12 @ PMP as I had a busy week ahead with family arriving to stay for the weekend and a party to throw on Saturday.
16.04 miles; avg pace 8.20
I started this run thinking I would feel like Usain Bolt after two days off but it was more a case of Paula Radcliffe;);) (in my dreams), my legs were tired and sluggish but the calf was fine. After 4 easy miles I felt better so I launched into my PMP miles, this run was just Ok, I got through it but if I’m honest it was a bit more effort than I’d have liked, I kept the pace steady at 7.50 but when my mind would wander thinking of my lists of things to get ready in the house the pace definitely dropped. I arrived in the door, got distracted and forgot to stretch (I love having the kids off school but it’s playing havoc with my training:().
Thursday I did a very, very slow recovery run on the hills of killiney and was disgusted to find my calf very tight again:mad:, should have stretched after the run, will I never learn??


Friday a long swim in the sea and a hot yoga class had me back to normal again but then the visitors arrived so no more training for me. Up till 4.30 on Saturday night/Sunday morning so the week was going downhill…. Sunday evening I managed to escape for a run with Ultraman as he was working in the area, I introduced him to the lovely hills and the great scenery of Killiney and my calf felt great again.

Total weekly miles 30.45 miles :eek::eek::eek:


A fairly disastrous week but I've noone to blame but myself, I just need to be more strict with sticking to the plan from now on and resting more. I'll need to keep the miles low and build back up agian so that the calf behaves.... My main concern now is that Ray will overtake me in the 1,000 mile challenge;););)

RayCun wrote: »

The gap is 100 miles... but shrinking

I'm just in from a 20 mile run;).
Actually, I am in fact sitting on the sofa with the boys watching the Olympics, eating crisps.... I think you're in with a good chance Ray:D

Dory Dory wrote: »

Michael Phelps....Michael Phelps.....Michael Phelps.....

(he's going for 2 medals today - if he secures them, he's then the MOST decorated Olympic athlete ever!!! )

It's soooo exciting! Just read a great quote from Larisa Latynina (spelling?)

"And I'm quite happy that there is a man in the world who can overcome my records."

I had to go buy food in the shops earlier (I'd have lasted on crisps but I felt guilty about inflicting that diet on the boys), I've returned to my post on the sofa now

Michael Phelps! Michael Phelps!

Oh no!

But at least he got silver.

Le Clos is adorable, so gracious in victory.

Dory Dory wrote: »

That's okay. He got the silver (and a medal)...so he ties the record now.

Woo hoo! What a result! Gold Medal and most medals ever!

USA... USA.... USA

Monday August
DLR BAY 10K


I had offered to collect Racheljev’s number for her so she came to our house as it’s less than a half mile to the start; it was great to have her company (not to mention the box of chocs she brought... nom, nom:))and we gave each other a run for our money with our pre-race nervous chit-chat.


We headed down to the Start nice and early and met lots of friends and a few commented on the fact that I had an unusual bib colour and number; white, number 3 (would it bring me luck today?)… the reason for my bib was I had accidentally clicked on the sub 35 time for projected finish (and no, I did not do it in purpose, I’m optimistic, not delusional:D) I emailed DLR beforehand and they said they’d change it no problem for me…..

Turns out the start corral marshals were extremely diligent and when I asked could I drop back they told me “No” I explained that there was no way I’d run sub 35 and even started to tell them about my niggly calf… I tried the guy who was in charge of the front pen and he told me to pop in anyway and go for it:D I was scarleh:rolleyes:, morto:rolleyes: as I was standing there but I stayed right at the back and by the time we started Mr Stew and the second pen was up beside me. The gun went off and away we went, lots of people passed me but things evened out very quickly and I was glad to feel the pace as not too bad (no fast running over the last two weeks had me very nervous going into the race). I began tp gradually pass a few and all was going well at this stage. 1st mile was 6.38 and it didn't feel too bad at all.
My dream goal was to PB (42.42), my not-so-realistic goal was to stay ahead of Mr Stew (but he has finally started listening to my training suggestions and is in great shape) and my likely goal was to treat it as a much-needed fast-training run and come in under 45 minutes. Because of the wrong pen mix up I hadn’t looked at the settings I had on my Garmin and I was disgusted to see only average pace and distance, but it was beeping after each mile with lap pace. After that I stopped looking at the Garmin and ran as fast as I could while trying not to aggravate my leg which wasn’t actually feeling too bad. Just before 5K a fellow Crusaders runner passed me (although I haven’t got a bib yet so I was in my trusty black) as the hills were really starting to hurt and I tucked in behind him for a while I wanted to tell him the hills would soon be over and to push on but I honestly couldn’t talk at that stage. Then another friend caught me and I managed to stay with him for a while but on he pushed at 8K. My pace was gradually slowing and I was now worried that I wouldn't even achieve my sub 45:eek:

I didn’t enjoy this run at all; I think when you’re racing and you have even the slightest doubt about your ability and in particular a physical doubt then it really is tough going. I kept telling myself to relax but my mind would tell me my leg was hurting so I should stop:( I didn't stop and although my leg was annoying me it never felt bad enough to stop so I was at least glad I managed to keep the Central Governer sort of in control.

The one really nice thing about the race was lots and lots of local support and lots of friends and family to cheer us on, and it was a super day for running (apart from the wind in my face for the last 1 K).
I passed only two people in the last 2K, one was throwing up and the other had stopped:D But on the last stretch up to the finish I pulled it out of the bag and overtook two guys, chip time 44.11, finished 171 out of I’m not sure how many finishers and a negative split (I think everyone had one of those though:)) So I suppose it wasn’t that bad after all but I can no longer say that number 3 is my lucky number (although maybe things could have gone a lot worse and it is indeed lucky).
The queues for yogurts, water etc were way too long so we headed to Teddys with Racheljev (fantastic run and a course record for her:D)and a few other pals for some protein replacement in the form of 99s:)


I was quite genuinely thrilled for Mr Stew (43.19), he’s been training really hard recently and I was even more happy for him when he reminded me he hadn’t bettered my 10K PB:D

However, I won’t be booking any 10K races for him in the very near future though;)