You only get what you give

Time to catch up...

28/02/2022 - 03/03/2022

No running, not sure what was in the system...antigen tests were clear and only had a minor enough chesty cough but felt like crap for a few days. Had this before a few years back and remember back then trying to run with it and got about two mins down the road when I had to stop. For this time I just left it a few days and didn't bother.

04/03/2022

Simple out and back 5K after work, 5K easy in 27:22 @ 5:27min/km. Nothing too memorable about the run only nice to be back out at it.

05/03/2022

No running but a very busy day with a bus load of juvenile athletes to Nenagh for the Munster Indoors, we had 8 teams due to travel on the day but despite best efforts to ensure we had subs where we could we got one drop out 30mins before the bus was due to leave so it meant one team was not going to be able to run on the day. Disappointing but the lads decided to take the trip all the same and had a grand day. It was a great experience for all the young athletes, for many their first time attending that level of competition and very impressed with how they all got on. Only one team ran in the a straight final (coming in 4th place) and the other 6 teams didn't progress from their heats but the aim of the game was to get them the experience, get them to run as teams in competition and hopefully we'll see good results from their continuing progress in the county championships in May. Will be back up to Nenagh again in a few weeks (day before the county road race which is not ideal) with some younger age groups all going well.

06/03/2022

Few options this morning, one involved a group run with a 8am start and a half marathon easy pace run....not really there at the moment and the other was a club run in Tralee a few hours later, nice to get the lie in and do the latter. Managed to persuade my wife and daughter to take a nice walk at the same time as the club run. Met the new VI athlete in the club and was asked would I like to do guide run for his run, been a few years since I did VI guide (did a 10K race once before and also a parkrun with two different people, one using a fixed figure of 8 loop rope and the other the person held my upperarm throughout) but figured I'd take it on for the first 5K or so and see how it went. This time it was using a light rope which was comfortable as looped around your hand, hardest thing for me was to remember to move my arm in running motion as naturally was keeping it fixed at times. Otherwise the guide run went well and I really enjoyed this run now, after a bad run a week earlier at the race it was a bit of a reset to just simply run and be able to do something nice for someone. Interesting enough the guy I was guiding has a recent half marathon time of 1:34 (my best ever is 1:40) and I'd guess at my best at the moment could try 1:44 or so but would be pushed. My first time guiding someone who is a lot quicker than me but works for the training for him for easy miles, has access to other runners for faster stuff. Plenty of chats and the run zipped along, should get the chance to do it again in a few weeks when I get to a club run in Tralee again...doesn't happen very often at the moment. 9.6K in 54mins @ 5:38min/km.

Weekly total 14.6K...lowest in a long time

Yearly total to date 352.K

07/03/2022

5.2K easy at lunchtime in 28:33 @ 5:28min/km. Coaching that evening then with the athletes from Saturday, nothing too hectic. Debrief on the weekend's competition and some work on running form. Pretty cold and windy evening but all in great spirits so a nice session.

08/03/2022

Original plan was to go for a run after work but was knackered so that run became a 40min nap instead and no run.

09/03/2022

And finally back up to date, in an attempt to get some structure going for the next few weeks ahead of the 5K road championships I did a speed session. Much the same as the ones I did for the recent 10K race plan. 15min w/u plus a few drills, then into the 400s with a cool down to finish. Had decided I'd do 4x400, if that went okay I'd add 2 more to make it 6x400 and likely stop then. Aiming for 1:40-1:44 for the 400s. Pace wise the first one was too fast, not sure why that was the case but overcooked it, 1:36, 1:41, 1:40, 1:42, 1:43, 1:42. Was feeling pretty good for the first 4, started to get a bit leggy on the 5th so left it at 6 and all good. Nice to get that one under the belt so hopefully back on track now, will see what the next few weeks bring. 5min cool down jog home finishes with 6.7K in 36mins of running.

Catchup before getting left too far behind...

14/03/2022 - 17/03/2022

Nothing, sore calf...bit of swelling but no bruising so figure it's minor enough and a few days off would hopefully help. Could feel it at times during coaching when doing demos to kids but nothing major. Was hoping it would be someway right for my next target race on Sunday 27th, the Kerry road championships.

18/03/2022

The extra day off, be nice if we had double bank holidays like this more often. Decided to try an easy 5K out and back....running a little bit gingerly around 1K in and thinking would I turn around and go back home but kept going just to see where it went for the remainder of the run. In the end it was no worse than it was before hand so figured it's on the mend. 5K easy in 27:39 @ 5:30min/km.

19/03/2022

No parkrun but I got to watch a parkrun...Athlone. I was up at the National Indoor Juvenile Championships to support/coach one of our juvenile athletes. Arrived there around 9am so to assist with warm up and her getting her mark for her long jump (scheduled for 10am). Outside the window of the facility I could see the parkrun, looks a bit of strange course Athlone running around sports fields for the most part...can't imagine it being much fun in the winter but all the same would have been nice to do it. Maybe the next time I'm due up there the schedule will work better. In our athlete's case, bronze medal in the U12 long jump. Great stuff! Hung around until lunchtime to watch a few of the events and then back home to Kerry (took a different route home on the drive to keep the brain happy). Once home just did another 5K easy in the evening in 26:44 @ 5:18min/km. Pace a bit quicker than the day before but felt good on a flat enough route.

20/03/2022

3rd day in a row, the comeback is on. Few options this morning, a running mate was running a local half marathon route early so there was an option to join him , his training is looking very nice for the Great Limerick Run half so fingers crossed for him. Only for the calf niggle I would have joined him as the pace would be easy (5:40/5:50K) even if I haven't run that distance for a few months. That being said had another option to meet some clubmates in Tralee for a run so went with that....a few of the other club coaches were on the run so bit of a debriefing chat on the competition from the day previous and planning for the months ahead. It's a busy period now in the athletics season with competitions for various age groups coming up rapid. 6.7K easy in 37:30 @ 5:36min/km.

Weekly total 16.7K

Yearly total to date 395.5K

27/03/2022

Kerry County Road Championships

Always one of my favourite races of the year and due to a bit of luck around scheduling opportunities and gentle persuasion it never missed a year over the pandemic. My results on the 5K across the various routes we've ran are as follows.

March 2017, Beaufort (21:43)

Missed 2018 due to a wedding

Feb 2019, Kenmare (21:03)

Feb 2020, Beaufort (21:13)

Sept 2021, Castleisland (22:16)

I have also taken on the task of recruiting/cajoling/twisting arms for it at a club level to try get as many runners as possible, this year we had 19 runners on the day (1/3 of the club's eligible runners) which is quite a good turnout and it's increasing year on year both in membership and people going to competitions to represent the club. This is easily one of the most accessible events for all runners and due to the various age categories and team prizes you have a great chance of winning a medal. The first medal I ever won since I got involved with an athletics club was back in the 2017 edition, silver o35 so you never forget that. This year I have graduated to the rank of the o40s and the course was going to be same course as we ran for last year. My original plan for this race as laid out when I started the log back in Jan was to take 30-45 seconds off that 22:16 however best laid plans and all that, bad day out in Adare at my first target race back in Feb (went through 5K around 23:02 that day and the second 5K in 26:02). Seems there was a bug in the system that took a week or so to shake off, then two weeks ago at a parkrun I managed to get a bit of a calf injury so no running for 4 days after that and nothing much of note since. Saying that I still planned to give it a good effort, try not go off too hard as figure it's my endurance will be the issue here due to lack of volume in the preceding week.

Arriving in Castleisland at 9:30 and collected the numbers for the club, small walk of the track there and a chat to start off the warm up process. After giving out numbers to all the runners I got short warmup of 1K done with a club mate. Didn't do any drills, no particular reason but just a few dynamic stretches and deemed myself race ready. Quick group photo of our club runners (not often you can so many together) and we lined up for the scheduled 10:30am start. No briefing that I recall and away we went.

1K (4:19)

Fast start to the race as you down the main street in Castleisland before taking a left turn and heading out to the outskirts of the town and another left run to the countryside. Checking my watch after the first 400m or so to double check pace it tells me 1.4K. So I had made a rookie mistake of not stopping my watch after the warm up so figured feck it what can you do just run to the effort. Two club mates who would normally be 23/24 mins runners went passed me here but I figured based on effort I'm on pace here if not ahead of it...when the watch beeped for the 1K split that confirmed it.

2K (4:31)

Slotting into my pace now I was bedding in well to the run. No issues with the calf so just said will try hold the pace at this and see where it brings me. A few runners ahead who coming to the end of the 2K I went passed including the 2 clubmates who flew passed me at the start of the race.

3K (4:38)

After passing a few people here my mind started to drift completely, not sure what I was thinking of but I tuned out of the race completely and started to slow here. Can't explain this one but I was just enjoying the race. I then started to focus on the runners ahead of me again to see could I move up the field a bit. I pulled by beside a female Killarney who was stuggling a bit and kept dropping her shoulders and head so just gave her a few words of encouragement. It helped get my mind back on the race and we ran together for a few mins.

4K (4:32)

Into the 4th K I came up to pass out the two runners which was a club mate of mine who was doing VI running with another club mate of mine. I acknowledged them as I went past but little response so I knew my clubmate doing the vi guiding here was at a high effort.

5K (4:22)

Into the final K now and was pretty happy with how this had gone, had just crested the one hill on the route and based on the split times I was working out around a 22:30 finish time...probably not likely to beat my 22:16 from the previous September and I didn't want to risk overdoing it. Next I heard my name from behind and it was my clubmate who was vi guiding (5 secs or so behind me saying her lace was after opening and she needed to stop could I take him on). I said grand job and then we had quick a unique relay changeover as we managed to change over to the tether from her hand to my hand (it goes around your fingers) whilst at race pace...guess we could have stopped but adrenaline does funny things to your head. After that my guidee and I just ran on to the end of the race, just two tricky bit to navigate. One being a sharp left turn from the main road onto the lane way down to the track. Not the best surface at spots and then from the lane way onto the track a few minor things underfoot but all good. Just on the home straight we ran it in pretty hard as the clock went from 22:30 to 22:31, in the last 2-3 strides I eased back to let I go ahead of me as he should cross the line first. Not sure what our official time is as a bit of a fubar with those recording the times from 21mins on so all times removed from the results. I have it recorded as 22:31.

Afterwards DeepBlue from these parts came over and introduced himself which is great, he had a fine run and fairplay for racing the day after the other race you did. Some going! It's the first boardsie from the AR forum that I met in person in a long time, just added to a good day all around. Did a short cool down jog around the track, again in keeping up with the theme I forgot to stop my watch proper after the race so warm up, race and cool down all in one session. Feck it! After more catch ups with people in other clubs they did the individual medal presentations so nicely my club mate who I was guiding for the last K got the second place male o40 and I got the third place male o40 so medals for the pair of us. Found out during the week then that we both scored on the third placed o35 mens team so more medals to come down the line for that. Afterwards I got a lovely message from the last person who I had recruited to run on the day (he enabled us to have two over 35 men's teams) that he really enjoyed the run and he'd be available for anything like that again in future. Prior to that race he had never pinned a race on his top in his life and he ran a good time on the day. Looking forward to picking up the team medals and presenting his medal to him when I meet him. Athletics for All is the motto of my club and I felt today was a great example of that in action.

Haha I don't think he'll win another title tbh, not with the regulation changes now. I did indeed know that about Jordan and Schumacher alright, Michael was never too far from controversy his whole career really.

Thanks AM, a good day it was! Seems like the calf issue is pretty much gone now so will have to figure what to do next. Another race plan that hopefully goes better than the last 10K or else some base building. There's a marathon coming up the end of October that is in my thoughts a bit.

Monday 28/03/2022

Club run this evening, running down around the sandhills in Banna. First half of the run on the beach with the second half of the run back across the sand dunes. Nice run and body felt all good after the previous days racing. 5.5K in 32min @ 5:55min/km. Training session with our U12-U18s after that for an hour then, distance running filled half the time for me on the coaching front, following that with some hurdles. Getting good numbers at these sessions and all appear to be enjoying them so they keep coming back!

Tuesday 29/03/2022

Solo run after work, using a loop with an added small out/back section to make up a 6K run. 6K easy in 32:43 @ 5:27min/km. Club committee meeting that evening then with planning training and also some event planning over the next number of months.

Wednesday 30/03/2022

Took a rest day today but coaching again in the evening from 7-8pm, focus on sprints (specifically starts with the same group as Monday night)...second half of the session was focused on relays with 10-15mins with some changeover drills and following that running the teams across the various age groups off against each other. Everyone loves relays.

Thursday 31/03/2022

Busy evening on the cards this evening so got out for a 6K steady run before work, 6K in 31:32 @ 5:15min/km. Not the best for running before work but always enough when I do. Our last indoor training session of the season then afterwards between 6-8pm with our U9-U12s in preparation for the Kerry Sportshall Games. Lot of work on relays against with these age groups and we'd a good group of 36 due to go compete on the Sunday coming.

Friday 01/04/2022

One of the guys in a group I run with from time to time announced a comeback after a break of a month or so due to injury so few of us met up to run which was great. Down around Banna on an out/back run on the roads there. 6K in 31:18 @ 5:11min/km. Pace wise I've felt this week has been a bit too quick on many runs, certainly this one was but I guess it was partially down to a few people being able to run together that haven't for a while. Need to remind myself that easy should be easy...also I need to get onto a plan again soon as that forces discipline I find.

Saturday 02/04/2022

Tralee parkrun, 5K in 22:49. Wasn't really sure how I was going to approach this but feeling good at the start I said I'd try for around 23mins. Felt it was a decent run without pushing it and feeling pretty comfortable and controlling throughout so was pleased with that. One issue that came up though was my Endorphin Speeds are starting to cause me some heel issues after only 200K. I really like Saucony runners but unfortunately this is not the first time this happened. I used to run in Saucony Breakthrus (now retired) as an easy runner but the last pair I had was cutting my heel to ribbons so might be something similar happening, could also be a side effect of being a heel striker so I am wearing the heel counter away a bit quicker in them than other brands. Will have to see can I come up with a solution or alternate the socks I wear with them to try aliverate the issue. I did a 1K warm up before parkrun and could feel it a bit on that but once I finished the run I didn't do a cool down as could already feel the blister coming in.

Sunday 03/04/2022

Busy Sunday ahead so was trying to figure when I'd get a run in, the best option involved an early start so to meet with a running group at 8am and do an 11K run with them, if that wasn't going to work out I'd have to leave it till late evening as I had an athletics competition on between 10-3ish and then to go see my daughter in her ballet show. The early morning run was a winner and set the day up nicely, unfortunately one of the lads had to pull out of the run almost immediately after starting as an injury flared up. Just a case of 1 step forward and 2 steps back for him it seems but hopefully some careful minding will see it right. For my own case 11K in 61mins @ 5:32min/km. Porridge in the car then and off to Milltown to arrive for 10am for the Sportshall competition to begin. Our young athletes did fantastic, with 4 relay teams winning medals. 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. One of the coaches who had a great view of the relays could see that in one age group our sprinters clearly were not the fastest team in terms of pure sprinting but their change overs were very smooth so they made up the ground and eventually got the silver medal. The work is paying off and all were delighted as were us the coaches. Our club finished in joint second place, next up will be the outdoor county championship in early May. After that back to Tralee to see my daughter taking part in her ballet show which went great too. Long day but a good one.

Weekly total: 40.9K

Year to date: 458.70K

Friday 08/04/2022

Caught up with a running mate for an easy 5K on the beach, he is making slow progress on the injury front but but hopefully this week will be better than last. Met another running mate towards the end of the run so the last 200m were walking and talking with her as she is slowly on her way back from injuries also. 5K easy in 30:51 @ 6:10min/km.

Saturday 09/04/2022

Tralee parkrun

Good day today, I was volunteering (V25 day for me) as a VI guide with another VI runner R who attends parkrun regularly there. We had exchanged messages earlier in the week that I would do VI guide with him and we'd go for a good time if he wanted. His pb stood at 24:38 so in my prep I had that written on my hand on Friday night with a target pace in km and more significantly I find is an elapsed time per lap so that was to be 8:10min so target time of 24:30 was the reference point. Of course on Saturday morning it was pretty cold so I worn gloves but I had the figures committed to memory. Arrived around 9ish to do my own warm up first, 1K in 6min. Back to the start area then to meet my guidee and do a warm up with him also. I asked what he liked to do so he said a short jog would do. 0.5K in 3:04. We had a bit of a chat then about his recent runs in parkrun, he's been close on the pb front but missed out by 10 secs or so. The last lap can be tricky with the overtaking required and just keeping the pace going but all the same we agreed we'd try for the pb. With that we lined up and away we went.

Lap 1, fast start...I have ran with R before so I know he's a quick starter but after about 200m I checked the watch to confirm what I felt and could see we were already on pace (4:55min/km) so told him to hold this pace as we appeared to be still accelerating but he eased back and all good. Lap 1 went off pretty easily thankfully. Not too much jockeyed for positions with people so easy to manage the few passes. We weren't exchanging much words enroute but just offered a few tips here and there...keep the head up...use the arms on the incline...keep it simple I find is best. Also prompting the turns (right turn coming up in a little bit, okay 3-2-1 and turn) keeps my concentration on the task. Coming around to end of lap 1 I looked at the watch to see 7:55 had elapsed. I was surprised we were 15 seconds ahead of the target but moving well.

Lap 2, could tell the effort was coming in a bit more here for R but just kept up the encouragement. Anyone passing knows him so gives him the few words of encouragement too which helps. His head was dropping a bit at times but his breathing was all good so I just kept up the encouragement. The dog leg section was a bit trickier to navigate on the second lap. Annoyingly as we went around the cone at the end of the dog leg the runner a few seconds behind us decided to give the cone a whack with his hand which gave R a fright as he thought he clipped it but told him to ignore it as wasn't him. Up the drag to the back of the Siamsa Tire took plenty of encouragement but then you get the nice downhill to that the respite which was appreciated. Coming through the start finish around I checked the watch and could see 16:11 on the watch. Feck I said to myself we've slowed a good bit on that lap (8:16). I just told R you are doing great but you need to do the last lap the same pace again and you'll get the pb.

Lap 3, this lap was all about keeping the show on the road pace wise and managing the overtakes of the various walkers on route. Thankfully all passes went pretty well, I try to call out around 20-30 meters from behind to say passing on the right. Most people hear it and respond to give a bit of extra space but unfortunately not everyone does so it can be tricky and it is tight in spots so and with a VI runner you can't run onto the grass to pass, you just have to slow down to get past safely. I can only recall one tricky pass where it was tighter than I would have liked but got done safely which is the primary job of the VI guide is to get the runner around the course safely. Up towards the top of the drag at Siamsa and I told R...two mins to go now so we need to push it on to get the time. He upped the pace a bit which was great but I was worried that we weren't going fast enough and were going to miss out on his time with the various passes...I knew it was going to be very close one way or another. Coming around to the back of the Ashe Memorial Hall there is a spot where it all opens up so no passing issue and that around 1 min to the finish so I told R..."one minute to go and if you have anything left we need to go for it now and stay going". Brilliantly he responded and found something else and the pace just picked up...around the last few bends and running much faster now. The finish line in sight....at this point now there is no talking but just running as fast as we can as a pair right through the finish line (my GPS tells me we got down to 4:18min pace over the last 100m or so). I just shouted stop and we both stopped in sync...I hit the button on the watch and kept my arm around his shoulder as he had been at max effort for the last bit. R took the respite for a second to get his breath and I checked the watch to check the time. My watch tells 24:34 so I told R I am pretty sure we got it...he's very happy and I am delighted for him. That third lap was around 8:21 so it was slower as I thought it would be but the strong finish did the job. At the finish line R's Dad collected him telling him he was running fast coming to the finish and they went happy with his run. Caught up with a few people and then did a cool down lap with some other running mates. 1.4K in 9:09min @ 6.09min/km.

Confirmed in the results later on that we both had 24:32. A 6 second pb for R and one of my favourite ever days at parkrun for me.

Sunday 10/04/2022

Up in parents place in Laois as going up to Dublin for my niece's birthday party so decided I'd get my run in this morning. Following the day's previous adventure at parkrun there was a lovely post on fb from Tralee parkrun so that gave me a nice smile first thing this morning. Wasn't sure what distance I'd run so planned to do a 10K loop and then add on a bit afterwards if time permitting. Picked a slightly different loop than I normally do up here to be a bit more adventurious. Always a bit wary of dogs here as I'm not around enough to know where they are. The loop worked out great and it was nice to take in a few different sights. Bit of a novelty for me is that after 6K I ran past the house of a local builder who I did some work experience with back in transition year in school. My one and only time doing some roofing was to put the slates on one side of the roof of the attached shed to the house. Anytime I pass the house I look in to from the road to check the roof to see if it's okay...I hope it's holding up as well on the inside as it looks from the outside and I have never heard a bad word back. It's there since 1997 so 25 years old....must be out of warranty now! When I got back to my parents place I was around 10K so added on a another small loop that brought the run up to 13.2K in 1:13:27 @ 5:33min/km.

Weekly total: 46.4

Year to date: 505.1K

Thanks P, I bought those glasses around 5 years ago and have lived in them since for running. I'm a full time glasses wearer since early childhood but I don't need prescription ones for running. Glare drives me nuts so I'm in the sunglasses in probably 8/9 months of the year. Speaking of cool, one of the young lads in my AC at training one days says to me quietly...."you think those glasses are cool but they are not". He destroyed me but gave me such a laugh as well in the delivery.

Thanks very much, it was a good one to try write a bit of a report for it.

Friday 15/04/2022

5K easy in 27:24 @ 5:27min/km. Off work on Good Friday so got my run done at a nice sociable hour of 10am when I'm usually working. Lost about 3-4 hours of my life after that assisting my daughter to spring clean her room. Clothes go in there and never leave, more clothes get bought but clothes still never leave. Local charity shop the beneficiary of a few bags of probably rarely if ever worn clothes but now all too small.

Some shot putt practice after that, ahead of the county championships next weekend. Have been trying to practice one or twice a week despite not logging it here. We'll see how it goes on the day but one or two of the throws out of the set went well.

In the evening time we took a bus load of juveniles over to the track in Castleisland for some practice ahead of their county championships at the end of the first week in May.

Saturday 16/04/2022

Tralee parkrun in 23:36, 1K warm up before this with 1.5K cool down afterwards. Run felt grand now, as ever with parkrun probably ran it a few mins too quickly but even with mileage build up this week figured a good tempo run was good to mix it up.

Sunday 18/04/2022

Running group were going at 8am so took the option of an early start and linked in for some of it, the lads were doing a local half marathon route...I had 10 miles in my mind so said I'd join them for the first 10K or so and then could break off across a gap in the hills as they continued on for another few K more of hills. I was tempted to stick with them and do the full half route but said having run yesterday I'd leave it with the planned shorter route. Worked out slightly longer than I realized it would be so it was 17.6K when I got back to the start so just kept going to get up to 18K. 18K in 1:39:46 @ 5:32min/km. First 10 mile (and change) run since mid Jan so happy with that.

Wraps the week off nicely with my first greater than 50K week since end of October last year so pretty happy with all that. Feeling good and could keep up the streak to run tomorrow but going to take the day off and next week see can I get similar mileage in 5 days running instead of 6. The county championships is on next weekend, not planning any running events for it. Will get entered for shot and weight for distance and will run in a 4x100 relay team if required.

Weekly total: 55.3

Year to date: 560.4K

Friday 22/04/2022

Rest day from running, final bit of shot putt practice that evening ahead of the county championships on Sunday.

Saturday 23/04/2022

Tralee parkrun in 24:28, half a K w/u before hand and 1.5K c/d down afterwards.

My parents were down visiting for the weekend so finally got around my mother to do her first ever parkrun. She walked it with my wife and daughter, I then joined in for some of the 3rd lap as my daughter had pushed ahead herself with a family friend. Lovely morning with perfect weather, for the most part I ran much of the run at conversational pace with a running colleague. Always a nice way to catch up.

Sunday 24/04/2022

Kerry County Championships on today, I was taking part in two events individually, shot and weight for distance and would run in the relay team if required. Have been working a bit on my shot and wfd, I like both events and would like to be able to throw further. I figure I'll keep plugging away at them and once I hit 50 in 10 years I'll be laughing as I'll go from a 7.26kg to 6kg and the weight for wfd will go from 56lbs to 35lbs...which hopefully will be an easier beast to manage. My first task on the day was to assist with the measuring in the javelin competition, it's always great to be in the infield area for javelin for when it's thrown well. Few of the guys today were throwing over 30m with some noted ones around 34/35m so their throws looked great, you'd be looking forward to seeing their throws up close!

Back to my own events, my shot pb is 5.89 from the county championships in 2017 with my wfd pb of 2.92 from the Munster championships in 2019. In the Munster indoors back in Feb this year I threw 5.84 in the shot and 2.88 in the wfd (improving in each round). My long term target for these is to try to crack 6m in the shot and 3m in the wfd so I have been working on them a little practising once or twice a week for a few throws in the yard at home. In the shot today my first throw registered 5.92 (only found out it was a pb later as was too focused on the 6m) and my second through was also 5.92. I think after this second throw DeepBlue of these parts zipped by on the track in the masters 3000m (his 3000m debut and did very well, congrats). Ahead of my third throw I took a few pointers from a colleague which I then messed up with a 5.4x throw I think...completely failed to carry momentum into the shot. For the 4th throw then I decided to push the boat out and tried a different shot (same weight) but a smaller size...think of these like bowling balls....each one is slightly different. This didn't work out so good as soon as I moved through the throw the smaller shot slipped in my hand a little so just fell out around 4m. Anyways the comp was done and glad with the pb and gold medal in the o40 category (only m40 competing in the event on the day). Into the weight for distance now and whilst I don't have as good a memory of the distances here I think my first throw was 2.45, second maybe 2.5x and then 2.6x. Will find out in the published results...in between my 3rd and 4th throw they started calling for the relay teams so I had to go get ready for that...bit of a dynamic warm up on the track. I got called back to do my final throw then and amazingly I think the shot of adrenaline for the warmup for sprinting helped and 3.04 was the official score for that throw. Delighted to finally crack 3m...next stop 4m...will take a few years!! Again a gold medal as the only m40 in the event, they are a bonus really but it's the nature of masters events...I am far from the level to compete a senior so will stick with my age category.

For the relays, I was running the first leg for my team...sure it's only 100m...it'll be grand. Nicely enough the next runner on our team (our fastest sprinter) on the day lined up close to the start of the transition zone so I only probably had to run 90m. Smooth enough changeovers through the team and we got a silver medal for the team on the day.

A successful day individually and also great to see many clubmates medaling across other events. Always a very enjoyable day out catching up with lots of people in clubs across the county as they compete.

Was planning to do a longish run when I got home but after sprinting decided to play it safe and leave it out. Lower mileage for the week but having built up for a few weeks a step back week was probably not a bad thing.

Weekly total: 27.4

Year to date: 587.8K

Monday 05/05/2022

All good following the race but given the spike in mileage/distance I took a rest day.

Tuesday 05/05/2022

Took in another loop around the townloads of Abbeydorney whilst my daughter was training. Another test of memory running roads I'd only run once before as part of a group. Worked out grand only for about 2K I had to run on what is classed as a regional road (naturally no hard shoulder) so not very comfortable with some traffic driving that little bit too fast. When I got back to the village I took in a short out/back section to have a look at the Abbey ruins for which the village is named after (Mainistir Ó dTorna). Interestingly enough I have often some locals in the area refer to the village as just odorney...they drop the Abbey part altogether. It's not the first time I've observed some curious things around place names in Kerry. A lot are actually pronunced much closer to the Irish version of the name rather than the anglicised version. The other two I often come across, Lixnaw and Gneeveguilla (first one is Leic Snámha, most commonly pronounced as Lixnaa, the second one...just say it in Irish if you want to say it, Gníomh go Leith...but run the words all into each other)...I think it's really a form of a locals test! 10K easy in 56:51 @ 5:40min/km.

Wednesday 06/05/2022

Run at lunchtime, 6.5K easy in 36:03 @ 5:32min/km. Fierce busy in work this week as my colleague is on leave...it's always a bit painful for either one of us when the other is off as we have to cover all the work coming our way so pretty relentless at times. Also had a technical issue that I could not crack for a few hours but thankfully the run did the job and I had the solution when I got back to my desk. This is not something unusual I find with technical challenges, sometimes you have to step away and a different approach will suddenly come to the fore. Running brings clarity in things I find. Big evening at my athletics club tonight as our final training sessions for our juvenile athletes ahead of the county championships and we also had a launch with a new sponsor. Lots of excitement! It's going to our largest groups in many years to go to the counties, that will take up most of Saturday and Sunday this weekend but looking forward to seeing how they get on.

Thursday 07/05/2022

Evening run, 8K (incl 6x strides) in 47:16. Felt really quite tired before going out for this run and was debating going for a lie down but went with the run option instead. Was going to be working later on for a few hours so the head needed the run as much as anything. Run was grand once I started off and decided to add a few strides in ahead of the last K or so. This went very nice, actually felt like I was moving fast for this...my GPS tells me I was getting down to sub 3min/K pace for this so around 400m pace. Last of the Easter eggs got rid of at home...sharing is caring!

Basebuilding (DM Training W-7)

Monday 09/05/2022

Debated to take my rest day here or else do the club session on offer. Was feeling good and wanted to catch up with the other coaches after the weekend to talk through a few things so opted with the club session but decided I'd do the intervals nice and handy, probably 10K/half marathon pace. So after a warmup it was into 4x800m intervals with 2min recovery (standing around chatting between them). For the first few of these I was around the back of the group but for the next 2 I seemed to have moved up despite not changing pace. Longer cool down jog and job done. 8.7K for the session. For the 800s the splits were 3:53, 3:57, 3:50, 3:56 (we were running into a headwind down around Banna for each second one).

Tuesday 10/05/2022

11K easy in 61mins @ 5:31min/km, I called this easy but looking this morning polar flow calls it steady. This run felt a bit crap now, just tired so figured about half way through you're definitely taking the next day off. I probably got my pacing wrong here but was trying to squeeze in a decent enough midweek run whilst my daughter was at football training. I quite like the loop around Abbeydorney that I used for this as feels safer than some of the other roads around that village. I probably rushed things a little trying to squeeze in it to be back in time so easing back a bit probably would have made it more enjoyable. Will do better next time.

Wednesday 11/05/2022

Putting in a rest day here, end of an 8 day streak.

Basebuilding (DM Training W-6)

Monday 16/05/2022

8K easy in 45:11 @ 5:38min/km. Missed going to club training tonight, can't recall the reason but I think I went for lie down after work so figured I'd just go for my own easy run. Working later that night then for a go live in work.

Tuesday 17/05/2022

Early start this morning for work, on a call from first thing not long after 8am and ended up being another extremely busy day in work. This was to be the way for much of the week, one of those weeks where you feel things are getting away from you. Between overtime and longer days I ended up doing an extra days work across my regular 5 day week. Today was a rest day from running, my wife and daughter also both very tired too with busy weeks for them so just had a quiet evening.

Wednesday 18/05/2022

My club (forgot to mention, placed 3rd overall in recent juvenile county championships....our best result since 2015 so delighted with that), were due to host our area's primary school sports this evening. Weather was looking a bit dodgy but said we'd leave it till afternoon before we'd make a call on it. I got a run in at lunchtime and despite just 6.5K in 35:11 @ 5:25min/km I got a proper soaking...drenched as could be. We made a call then to postpone our event on safety groups as sprinting on grass and a very wet surface are not a good match.

Thursday 19/05/2022

10.5K easy in 58:36 @ 5:35min/km, went for a doze for 20 mins after work and then out for my run. This run was a real slog, felt like crap throughout and had to break it down into smaller checkpoints to trick my brain into doing it....around 3K in said I'll run to end of this stretch of road and maybe ring my wife...got to 5K then and said sure run up to the village and see then...that got me to 7.5K and then figured sure by the time I ring her and her collect me I'd nearly be home just finish it off. Glad I did it but didn't enjoy it at all.

Friday 20/05/2022

Another after run work, could have got this in at lunchtime but short lunch due to work stuff again. 6.5K easy plus 6 strides. Starting to feel a bit better...guess cos the work week was done. Had been thinking of doing the 10 miler being hosted by An Riocht in Castleisland on Sunday but a change of plans meant a trip up home on the cards on Saturday.

Saturday 21/05/2022

Tralee parkrun, my daughter (K, aged 10) asked me would I run with her so I said no bother. Car was packed for a trip up to Laois after the run. We arrived just in time for the briefing but no time to warm up, as I figured we'd be running it around in 40ish mins no issues. My wife was walking it and K and I were running together. Lidl were doing a popup thing at Tralee this week so free t-shirts all around, worth getting one if they're doing it in your vicinity. Anyways away we went and steady pace starting off....around 500m in K tells me she wants to get a pb today and I was like oh right you should have told me before hand, so I said fair enough we'll give it a go. First lap went well and she ran the whole lap so that was a good start, checked the watch at the end of the lap and it was around 11mins something...all good as her pb was 39:31 for Oct 2021. She suggested a walk break now so all good, walk for a minute and go again. She tipped away but the next walk break came within the same K...I just encouraged her that the second lap is always the hardest and we just need to get it done and we can see then for a pb. Another walk break going up the drag at the back of Siamsa Tire and then she ran down to the finish line. Checked the lap time...12mins 30 I think it was. I told her she's doing great and if she can keep going you'll get it. Decent run for 500m and then she stopped again for another walk break. Bit more cajoling this time as said you've just to do this lap now and you're done....you'll still get a pb once you can get running again. Away she went but wanted to hold my hand for a bit, that's grand for a little stint but showed her it's easier to run using your arms to help you along. One lady on the run gave her great encouragement as it was tit for tat between them over the laps but on the last stint on the dog leg K got a good go at it and ran for a little bit but stopping again. This was to be the final stop and with around 800m to go I told her we have to run...we don't have to go fast but we need to run and you'll get the pb you want and be so proud of yourself. Using all the tricks in the book now over the last km, see that person there I reckon you can catch them (she did) and around the last few bends it's 200m to go and she was motoring now....we could see someone else she knew up ahead (P) and I said to her (catch P before the end) and away she went...I was only a passenger now as she passed P in the last 20 meters and across the line....36:08 the official. Almost a minute and a half off, K delighted with herself.

Sunday 22/05/2022

18K easy in 1:42:42 @ 5:42min/km. Planned a route out around my homeplace in Laois. It's route I think I ran before and strava tells me it would be around 17.5 long so could patch on an out/back bit at the end for a route number finish. Took in the Jaap Stam podcasts on the Man United podcast for this run and very interesting, not sure I've heard Jaap do any long form interviews before so nice to hear from him as he looked back over his career and time at United. It's tough times for United fans like myself these days so nostaglia is the order of the day on that front for the moment.

The route though worked well, first half of the route was country flat...ups and downs....plenty of turns on the back roads. Second half of the run then was on the old N7 from the Pike of Rushall back to Borris. Good route for Dublin marathon training as long drags and tbh it's tedious running in the hard shoulder of an old main road for 8K...the camber was something to be wary of in some spots so had to shift positions to nearly on the broken yellow line to right down on the grass verge to get a level spot. That section is mentally tough to run on, I've done the same on the other side of Borris going to Roscrea and back...8 miles in each direction and I find it mentally challenging at times! My focus on this was keeping it in the green on my hrm again, easy being easy and glad to say outside of the initial spike when I started off running it keep in the correct zone for the duration.

Back home to Kerry then in the afternoon listening to the final day of the season on the radio. Certainly was lively there for a time when city were two down but not to be for Liverpool on the day. Liverpool winning plenty at the moment so they'll be okay! No time for city at all though, least Liverpool are a proper football club and given where they were not so long ago give me hope that with better ownership and management United can get up there again...hopefully soon.

Weekly total: 54.5K

Year to date: 805.9K

Basebuilding (DM Training W-4)

Monday 30/05/2022

Up in Dublin for work, I do wonder when it will no longer feel strange being back in the office. Still very quiet there with the majority of people working from home. Nice to catchup with the few people who were in the office. Was originally planning on a longer run in the evening (fancied running out to Poolbeg lighthose as I've never been) but between losing 45mins making a small balls of finding the hotel I was staying (never trust Apple Maps) and then having bought a ticket for Bryan Adams (show was excellent) in the 3Arena I only had time for an 8K out/back...ran down along the quays and over the east link and out towards Poolbeg area. 8K easy in 44:18 @ 5:32min/km.

Tuesday 31/05/2022

Rest day

Wednesday 01/06/2022

Late getting this run in, wasn't until after juvenile training and some planning for my club's Open Sports coming up at the weekend. Didn't get on the road until around 8:50. Used the Tom Kelly 8K route around Ardfert with a bit extra at the start and finish to make 9K easy in 51:05 @ 5:40min/km.

Thursday 02/06/2022

10.2K easy in 57:44 @ 5:39min/km, Community Games coaching this evening so got my run in after work and before that. Just ran to my local village of Causeway...used the 4 and a bit K loop there and back home. Lovely evening starting off the run but the rain came in mid run so got a small soaking. After that over to Ballyduff for some coaching, ball throw and relays were the order of the day.

Ah very good, it was great seeing them live again and was a nice venue for it too. Not sure what the capacity for that venue is but excellent crowd for sure!

Basebuilding (DM Training W-3)

Monday 06/06/2022

Munster Master's Track and Field Championships, MTU Cork

Two events for me on the day, Shot Putt and Weight For Distance. Shot Putt was a bit of a disaster for me...just felt tired and flat for each of my throws so whilst part of my technique (the actual final putting motion was good) my footwork for the glide was awful...probably would have done better overall just putting from a standing position. Worst throws of the year for me, best throw on the day was on my last throw 5.59m. I managed 5.92m (my pb) at the county T&F champs back in early May. Only two in my age category so I go away with a silver medal, masters events are funny like that...can feel like medals for showing up really...my target is just to try improve on previous performance but not today.

On the Weight For Distance, that went much better and I got a pb in the event. Bit of a mistake by the official recording the measurement of my final throw. He wrote it down as 3.05 when the measurer had called it as 3.12, another competitor confirmed that to me. I didn't query it and no matter and will give me a target to hopefully reach again at the nationals. My pb from the recent county track and field championships was 3.04 so only a 1cm pb on the day but will take it. Felt much happier with these throws and managed to build a small bit of momentum with 56lbs ball before releasing it. Silver medal again in my o40 age category, only two in the age category again. Event finished at 5:30pm so it was 8pm before I got home and was too tired for running. A lot to do that evening then getting the entries for the Munster Juvenile T&F champs sorted out for the weekend to come (it never ends!).

Tuesday 07/06/2022

One of the days when you just can't wait for work to be over, exhausted tired and went for a nap after work. Took a covid test just in case after a good lot of interacting with people over the weekend but all clear. No running.

Wednesday 08/06/2022

First run since Sunday, 6.5K easy in 36:38 @ 5:38min/km. Slotted this run in at lunchtime as was driving over to Castleisland the second work was finished to assist at the county track and field primary schools championships. Stressful journey after work with heavy traffic, one of the joys of country living is you don't deal with traffic jams very often if ever really for the most part. Anyways I made it on time thankfully, my duties on the day was on the finish line (to call the often controversial 3rd place) for the boys sprints and the distance races. Then only managed the final relay changeover zone for the relays. This is always a great event and it was last held in 2019. A good lot of my club's athletes were competed for their schools and some medalled too which was great.

Thursday 08/06/2022

Community Games training this evening so got my run in after work instead of at lunchtime, 8K run in 41mins @ 5:06min/km. Given the lack of mileage this week I just felt like making a tempo run out of this instead of another easy run plus the time constraints to fit it in. Event planning this evening for my club's upcoming race on the August Bank Holiday (this carried over into the next day also but getting there).

Friday 09/06/2022

5K easy at lunchtime, 5K in 27:38 @ 5:30min/km. Traveling up the country this evening so slotted in a short run at lunchtime.

Saturday 10/06/2022

Over to Templemore to the first of two days of the Munster Juvenile T&F Championships. Got over there early with my father to do a 1K warmup before the parkrun. Templemore parkrun is my home parkrun when I'm up at my parents. It's a small event with 40/50 participants usually, a nice course, 2 and a bit laps around the circumference of the town park. Despite no hills and just one drag you run twice I have never found it to be particularly quick course for me. 24:28 was my time for the day and happy with that was figuring around 24/25 starting off and ran to that pace.

Long day then at the T&F champs with my club's athletes having a good day and a few medals won by them, My daughter picked up a silver medal in the turbo jav in the pairs event and has qualified for nationals for a second year in a row which was great. We didn't get this news confirmed until last night (Mon) as there was some issues with the pairs entries it seems.

Back to my parents place then and an early night ahead of the second day of events to come on Sunday.

Sunday 11/06/2022

I had an idea of getting up early and getting a 10K run in before heading back to Templemore....whilst I woke up early enough to do that I fell back asleep so too late then after that. Back over to the competition to support/coach our athletes in their events. Again another busy day with ups and downs (such is the nature of the sport) but the athletes did well and proud of their efforts over the weekends.

Didn't get back home to Kerry until after 8pm, shattered...again no running. Not a good week on the running front but just too much going on, things should settle soon over the coming weeks. Looking forward to end of the competition season in a few weeks as it's been very tiring of late with weekends taken over almost completely.

Weekly total: 26K

Year to date: 956.5K

For the week ahead I have the local half marathon, Half on the Head on Saturday...I will be running that but on the pacing front I am likely going to approach it like I did Limerick recently...1:53/1:55....at best a marathon paced run, with a conservative first 9/10 miles (also ties in with the nature of the hills on the course) and then a strong finish embracing the downhill for mile 10/11 and the flat finish to home. We'll see what the week brings.

Haha will do, usually go to Flahive's for the prize giving afterwards so might catch you there.

Surely you could negotiate for the first "local" man home in the 10K!!