Is it Now?

Dory Dory

Lyrical and clever. Some folks would pay good money to read what you wrote. No worries about the Garmin - if you get it in working order again, then definitely post the run. Cheers to you!

donothoponpop

RayCun wrote: »

I've just started reading "Feet in the Clouds" and I'm alternating between "these people are dangerously insane" and "maybe..."
'insane' is well out in front, but I'm a bit worried that 'maybe' will gain ground over the course of the book :eek:

There's only one way to find out. Plenty of trails in the Dublin mountains, they're a decent start. If the Flying Spaghetti Monster had created us to run on tarmac, he's have given us correct-starting-wave glands. The absence of such suggests we should go off-road mountain running.

Q.E.D.

PositiveNegativ

donothoponpop wrote: »

...into a hard steep climb skirting Brockagh hill...

A walk up from the river brought us to the hard trail down to Crone Woods...

Brockagh. Steep. And walking? When are you ever going to man up?

donothoponpop wrote: »

(Sorry Dory stupid Garmin won't upload or turn on now)

You know the rules*. No Garmin track = It never happened.

*All post-2005 Mountain Running feats are irrelevant.

Slogger Jogger

Sounds like a great day. Well done. Sensible decision not to overdo it based on your recent training.

donothoponpop

Dory Dory wrote: »

Lyrical and clever. Some folks would pay good money to read what you wrote. No worries about the Garmin - if you get it in working order again, then definitely post the run. Cheers to you!

Managed to get it going again. This is the route from yesterday.

(Incidently, for comparison this is my longer run of the route in reverse, from a few months back- got the first 35 miles of 40, before my garmin split in two).

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

Brockagh. Steep. And walking? When are you ever going to man up?

You know the rules*. No Garmin track = It never happened.

*All post-2005 Mountain Running feats are irrelevant.

There were mountain runners before 2005? Show me the Garmin proof.

Hoist by your own petard, gramps.

Dory Dory

You and your mates are beasts! Nicely done....and with what appears to be grand splits. If only you could figure out a way to put music to the player when the teardrop moves about your path like the Art O'Neill video....which begs the question: what song would you put to your moving Garmin teardrop map for this particular run?

donothoponpop

Sun 2.4 mile recovery jog

My legs are as you'd expect them to be- sore in the usual places. Knee hurts a bit, but not as much as I would have expected, which I think is a good sign.

Ran with the two kids up in the forest, for a very slow and very enjoyable jog/mentoring session.

donothoponpop

Dory Dory wrote: »

....which begs the question: what song would you put to your moving Garmin teardrop map for this particular run?

Beethoven's 9th for climbing up to and crossing Djouce, in a blizzard. Suitably epic.

"Wheelbarrow Walk" by Michael Nyman, for coming down off it. Its a very immediate, in-the-moment, piece of music.

SureWhyNot!

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

You know the rules*. No Garmin track = It never happened.

*All post-2005 Mountain Running feats are irrelevant.

Bar the fact that I am die-hard skeptic, this would represent to me the greatest turn of face since George Hook started doing Sky adverts.

I call for a Ban on Garmin type devices from all LC races... sorry for the language, but I bash metal for a living.

'Leave No Trace' campaign has just been re-calibrated for a new meaning

By the way Djouce was epic yesterday, best reason ever to run... and to think I had to run on the grass in Morton stadium today because the track was unrunable!!!

donothoponpop

SureWhyNot! wrote: »

Bar the fact that I am die-hard skeptic, this would represent to me the greatest turn of face since George Hook started doing Sky adverts.

Try training* with the guy; Volte-face is the default state. "Easy walk up Annagh because my achilles is busted" means I get to watch him run up, then run back down to "encourage" me increase my walking gait. "I'm done with hill-running: never again" means turning up for a podium position at any LC event. I swear, if it wasn't for our mutual respect for holding hill running and wine consumption in parity of esteem, I'd have considered myself the lesser man quite some time ago.

SureWhyNot! wrote: »

By the way Djouce was epic yesterday, best reason ever to run... and to think I had to run on the grass in Morton stadium today because the track was unrunable!!!

Running up to, across, and off, Djouce yesterday was life defining. Stern face against the gale going up, considered grimace across the flank, I'm-eight-years-old-just-got-my-first-bike-Wheeeeeeeee!- coming down Life in reverse.

*Edit- I should point out that "training" together means turning up at the same geographic location in similar footwear. Any time effort is expended, I've been left far behind. So far, anyway.

SureWhyNot!

I don't see why I cannot like "thank" that last line twice...

PositiveNegativ

donothoponpop wrote: »

Running up to, across, and off, Djouce yesterday was life defining. Stern face against the gale going up, considered grimace across the flank, I'm-eight-years-old-just-got-my-first-bike-Wheeeeeeeee!- coming down Life in reverse.

Really looking forward to running it in the dark this Wednesday Night.

jeffontour

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

Really looking forward to running it in the dark this Wednesday Night.

It was great on Saturday, hopefully there is still a sprinkling of white stuff knocking around Wednesday, I'm hoping to make it down.

As for your recovery run yesterday dpop, good stuff. I hit the pubs and restaurants of Dublin hard between Saturday eve and yesterday so I have done nothing since. I feel like a waster for not running to work today, the legs are grand. Might get out for a sneaky few k later.

nerraw1111

Great run, jealous. Sounds like it was a great run. Hoping to run the half marathon plod route at some stage this week.

donothoponpop

Thurs 4 miles steady/fastish

Up in the forest, very soft underfoot. Ran the first two miles at a steady pace, then sped up on the return, to finish quite strongly. I think I'm going to increase the pace of these shorter runs.

On foot of the "Best performance 2011" discussion, I've been PM'ing another poster, and his reply really struck a chord. The only way I'm going to get faster is if I train harder, and start racing short stuff again. Practically, this means racing some of the upcoming IMRA winter league events. Fair enough, I've been injured for a lot of the past year, but injury didn't mean I had to get so fat and slow. I'm 41, that's probably a bit too early to just run for the excursion and exercise. That's a large part of why I do it, especially given the great landscapes I can train in; but I want to get back a bit of a competitive edge again. This log has become a bit too much like a diary, I need to start including some stats in it, and those stats have to improve in the coming year. New Years Resolutions, I guess.

ocnoc

donothoponpop wrote: »

Thurs 4 miles steady/fastish

Up in the forest, very soft underfoot. Ran the first two miles at a steady pace, then sped up on the return, to finish quite strongly. I think I'm going to increase the pace of these shorter runs.

On foot of the "Best performance 2011" discussion, I've been PM'ing another poster, and his reply really struck a chord. The only way I'm going to get faster is if I train harder, and start racing short stuff again. Practically, this means racing some of the upcoming IMRA winter league events. Fair enough, I've been injured for a lot of the past year, but injury didn't mean I had to get so fat and slow. I'm 41, that's probably a bit too early to just run for the excursion and exercise. That's a large part of why I do it, especially given the great landscapes I can train in; but I want to get back a bit of a competitive edge again. This log has become a bit too much like a diary, I need to start including some stats in it, and those stats have to improve in the coming year. New Years Resolutions, I guess.

I put the kettle on and had another mug of joe in my hand. Killing time on line and putting things off.
Thank you.
This post linked up a lot of thoughts.
Not sure what about it, but something did.

Constant pressure, but give the body time to repair itself.
We'll be having no pussy footing on the mountains today

The races are won and lost away from the starting line.
The hard work starts in the mountains, in the deep ****, when the only light you can see is the dim pencil light beam on the ground in front of you.

Training hard makes giving everything in a race and taking a win look easy.

so now that I've gotten completely worked up - I reckon its time to go outside and do some race visualisation

PositiveNegativ

Have you ever run a race where you knew the outcome because you'd already run it in your head dozen's of times?
Have you wandered the carpark beforehand and not paid the remotest attention to who else was there because you'd seen the result already?
Have you ever harnassed the weeks of training you'd put in specifically for that one race and poured them from your body till not one drop remained?

I remember each step. It feels like yesterday. It was 1993.

When you have, you will remember each step, you will know the effort beforehand is worth the effort.

donothoponpop

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

Have you ever run a race where you knew the outcome because you'd already run it in your head dozen's of times?
Have you wandered the carpark beforehand and not paid the remotest attention to who else was there because you'd seen the result already?
Have you ever harnassed the weeks of training you'd put in specifically for that one race and poured them from your body till not one drop remained?

I remember each step. It feels like yesterday. It was 1993.

When you have, you will remember each step, you will know the effort beforehand is worth the effort.

Sugarloaf?

If we're to share a training log, here's what needs to happen for 2012. I need to lose weight and train/race hard. You need to run 5/6 days a week, with a lot of them recovery days. This thing of one running day a week- hard running- will keep breaking you down. I'll leech off your hard training, in return I bring gifts of many slow recovery sessions. We both need to lay off the hooch in order for that to happen.

That wine will taste so much better in July, after a 6 month absence. What'd'ya say?

PositiveNegativ

6 months, no Bordeaux?
You can have your log back now.

donothoponpop

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

6 months, no Bordeaux?
You can have your log back now.

Obviuslu I wuz hunngoverand drunc riting that. Ah ye're a goodd mate, c'mere didd I everr tell ya whatt a gud matee...

Ok. 1 month. January. Hard training.

Slogger Jogger

@dpop - are your hard days, pn's rest days

I'd be up for some of dat (tuff training stuff) too, but talk in december is easy

See ya in the morning weather permitting.

PositiveNegativ

Strange Loops. Strange Lad more like.

donothoponpop

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

@dpop - are your hard days, pn's rest days

I'd be up for some of dat (tuff training stuff) too, but talk in december is easy

See ya in the morning weather permitting.

Talk is cheap? I'm the one signed up for the 55k mountain marathon at night, while you still lick your wounds doing 9k loops at 4:22 pace :p:p

See you tomorrow early, weather/cloud dependent.:D

donothoponpop

PositiveNegativ wrote: »

Strange Loops. Strange Lad more like.

Its turned back to a log diary. Just spent 5 minutes making robot moves with my daughter to Kraftwerk. Now about to play pool with this as backdrop. Reliving my youth, you see.

Dory Dory

This website smacks of one delicious sitcom with multiple hilariously and slightly dysfunctional/tragic/uplifting/inspirational subplots that wind and intermingle with a common goal.

Merry Christmas dpop. Whatever your thread is to you - a diary or training log, please know that there is a gal across the pond who looks forward to each new post...in all it's quirky glory.

donothoponpop

Dory Dory wrote: »

This website smacks of one delicious sitcom with multiple hilariously and slightly dysfunctional/tragic/uplifting/inspirational subplots that wind and intermingle with a common goal.

Merry Christmas dpop. Whatever your thread is to you - a diary or training log, please know that there is a gal across the pond who looks forward to each new post...in all it's quirky glory.

You made my day Dory!:eek: (my daughter on my knee told me to put in the eek! she likes emoticons!) And Merry Christmas to you and yours too!

Ok, time for a gear check. Lets go up Annagh in the am dark anyway. Meet at 7:20am, forest entrance. The runner formally known as ambulatory has committed, so that should be another joining us, Mick:D

Slogger Jogger

The sitcom continued this morning. A dpop txt to wake me up for a 7.20 run start (not 7.30 as advised the last time we talked, so less time to wake up). Weird to be torchlight running in the morning. Still, a nice way to start the day and I now know where to go and pray if I need to on Annagh hill Now.. is it too late to go back to bed for an hour.

donothoponpop

Fri 4 mile hill run.

SJ was there at 7:20am, PN had gone on ahead, so we switched on the headtorches, and made for the climb, on a balmy and misty pre-dawn. Its hardly easier in the dark, and I trudged up to the gate in 18:50. I'm including that stat as a marker, I need to bring it down under 15:00. Still dark on the top, we ran to meet PN at the appointed collapsed "church", and waited for the sunrise out over the Irish Sea, more in hope than expectation. The few lights visible down below us, I took for a ferry bringing emigrants home to their families, and small beaming triangles I imagined were sailing vessels, bobbing gently below with nets full of shrimp that would adorn many a Christmas table.

(After the mist lifted a bit I realised we were in fact looking over land, and those lights the newly-awakened putting on their coffee with a yawn and an arse scratch.)

So no real chance to see the dawn, instead just a gloaming that enveloped us. We started running again, along the grassy ridge, very wet and slippy underfoot. Cross the wall, turn back up the hill. I put down the foot a bit towards the top- I can run decent hill repeats if needed, but long slow slogs are not my forte. Back into the forest, and down to the cars. No solstice light, but a good start to the day anyway.

jeffontour

donothoponpop wrote: »

Fri 4 mile hill run.

SJ was there at 7:20am, PN had gone on ahead,

Sounds very romantic. Delighted to see bromance blossoming at this festive time of the year.

donothoponpop

jeffontour wrote: »

Sounds very romantic. Delighted to see bromance blossoming at this festive time of the year.

Now Jeff, don't be jealous!

These two lads aren't a patch on our special 6 hour bromancing the Wicklow Way;)