2011: Father, husband, employee, runner; making it all work

jcsmum wrote: »

Yes they do!

Are you a Donegal woman???
Hopefully there will be a lid kept on the hype..... Dubs should win but that's been said and written many, many times before. Funny but I reckon Donegal could well beat the Dubs if they played them at football as opposed to the massed defence business they have at the moment.

belcarra wrote: »

Booo!!

I'm with you on that one!

if only because I'm more scared of Kerry than I would be of Mayo....

4.5 miles today- can't remember the time
Was a recovery run from yesterday, actually didn't feel that stiff at all so the legs were in decent nick. Mutely came for the run, he was tired at the end.... poor doggy
WAs out last night in Limerick with college buddies
A number of conclusions:
I'm not able for drink- I drank about 6 bottles of beer over a 7 hour period, combined with lots of water, I felt terrible this morning- mentally not physically
The day after drink is a downer and not enjoyable-
Young ones out on a Saturday night don't wear a lot of clothes
I am turning into my father

Went for a jaunt this evening just to loosen the legs
Nearly 4 miles don't know the time. Around 35 min or
Legs felt good largely, body was and is tired after racing.
Shoulders are a bit stiff
Anyway still v happy with my result yesterday- amazing considering the little 4 month old bundle that's asleep upstairs that i've managed to get any running in,

Hills session with the club last night
3 lopps of 0.85 mile section with 90-120sec break.
First was 5.20
Second 5.25
Third 5.30

Was interested in my km splits more than anything- first km split was 3.51, second 3.54 and third 4.00
Putting a sub 20 requires 5 of the first or second back to back. A tall order but happy nonetheless that I have sub pace somewhere.

Was wrecked after it- its a very tough session

belcarra wrote: »

That will be my tactic anyways...never ran with pacers before so should be interesting...

Pacers are actually good to run with from my one and only experience- don't tell Meno that though.....

13.1 miles in 1.58
Did 13.1 this morning, found it very difficult and a real slog. I know that it was raining and windy but I didn't enjoy this. Ran around St Enda's park, Marlay Park x2 and over and back to get the distance in, found the last 2 miles tough which I suppose is to be expected considering I haven't run this long in nearly a year.

Nutrition or preparation may not be ideal for this sort of distance- was up with the little ones this morning and had a bowl of porridge around 8.30. Then went out around 10 so it was 12 when I was back. Think I was out of fuel which didn't help the last few miles.

Drank some electrolyte drink when I got back (Powerade Ion 4- it came from the US) , that didn't help at all. It just lodged in my stomach and I felt nauseous for about 2 hours after it. I'm also really thirsty now.

I usually drink water or a Lucozade Sport but just wanted to try something different. My next experiment will be a scoop or two diluted of Optimum Nutrition's Essential Amino Energy. Anyone use anything like this?

The World athletics coverage on Channel 4 is ridiculously bad- ads every 5 min or so. Anchor is poor. Wish it was the BBC- they usually do a great job

Long run this morning
12 miles in 1.47
Better than last Saturday's half attempt-
Still haven't the fuel strategy right- got up and went out at 10.45, no breakfast just a bottle of Lucozade sport for company. Didn't feel as drained as last Sat though.
Was going to do 11 around Tymon but ended up doing 12. I'd say I ran 11 of it on grass which was good for the muscles and joints
Have to decide what to do next weekend- do 13 again or do 10......

Was at the soccer on Friday night- a poor attempt at a game. How frustrating it is to watch a game where both teams aim is not to lose. Atmosphere was very poor

CLub this evening
35 minute run- ran at about 7.40 speed. 4.7 miles or so
Then a few strides/
Amazing how quickly you lose speed. I thought I was really motoring at 7.40......:rolleyes:

REcovery supposedly yesterday evening. 6km or so around Tymon Pk
Bought muttley with me and he's getting fit because he ended up dragging me around a decent stretch of the park- I wanted to just loosen the legs out but he had another thing on his mind and was running madly.
Anyway I was glad to get a full weekend's running in despite the hurricane forecasts.

Still looking for a ticket for Sunday

---

I'm not certain how the quest will turn out. Many have promised none have delivered yet.

This is nominally a running thread however so much more happened this weekend that deserves to be recorded:

Half Marathon: 1:43:14

Race Report:
Was up for this v early, the littlest one has her first proper cold so was awake at 6. I got up with her, gave her some medicine and fed her.
Got myself a good bowl of porridge and watched a decent stretch of rugby while she fell asleep. Topped up with some OJ, Toast and Tea and woke the rest of the house around 8.30
Off to the park and despite a bit of driving around Chapelizod for a while eventually got parking. Into the park walked up the kyber and dropped the bag off. Jogged off down to the start and warmed updebating my race plan still in my head. Decided to chance the 1.40 pacers- did this in 1.57 last year and followed up with 1.50:12 a few weeks later so this was going to be a big ask.
Still amazed at the crowds of people that you head talking at the start saying they are targetting 2 hrs and are ahead or alongside pacers that have 1.40 written on a massive balloon. Maybe I should turn into a **** and point this out to them in no uncertain terms.
Start was largely uneventful. First few miles were fine until we came upon the stragglers from wave 1 and then there was a lot of passing out. I felt like I was running well within myself. The pacers were doing a good job keeping all our spirits high, shouting out the splits and giving a roar every now and then. It got hard when we turned onto Chesterfield Ave. Despite only grabbing one cup to take a small sip from I felt like I lost touch a bit with the pacers- I now know that this was really because we got filtered into one side of the road and therefore your place got pushed back. I spent the run up and down Chesterfield between 5 and 7 or so trying to catch up and making not a lot of progress. In retrospect I shouldn't have
been worried as I probably wasted energy. Up past the zoo and 7 and I was fine. Towards 8 my mam was on the side and surprised me with a big roar- also shouted the score in the rugby which put paid to my plan to watch it later. It started getting hard around 9 miles and I lost touch with the pacers- at the start I thought my losing the pacers would be a conscious decision to let them go but this just happened and for the sake of keeping going to the end I lost some pace and had to moderate my speed. It started getting tough from her on in. I kept checking the distances, the North road and back onto Chesterfield was a killer, until we got to 11 or so I kept on considering stopping for a walk. I made a deal with myself not to check time as I didn't want to get disheartened and I just kept going. I chanced a look at 12 miles and couldn't believe that I was around 1.35. Up the hill and onto the long run in which felt like it went on forever. I had about 700m to go when I passed 1.40 so I was chalking 1.40 down for whenever I do this again.... ( if ever;)) Crossed the finish in 1.43 14. Was wrecked at the finish but absolutely delighted and thrilled. There wasn't a whole lot else left in the tank today so I didn't finish thinking that I could have done better- but I know that a bit more endurance would see me under 1.40. Had a long walk back to the car at Island bridge and the legs were buckling on me going down, it was a long slow walk.

Got home to a hot bath and my lovely ladies. THe legs loosened out in the bath and got to watch the rugby. AMazing result but interesting that their performance wasn't perfect. Lots of room for improvement. AMazed that they ended with ROG at 10 and Sexton at 12 having never played that formation before.... Looks like we could get Wales in the QF with a good chance to win that and get into the semis

And then on to the weekend's main event....
Dublin 1-12 Kerry 1-11
GOt my ticket on Thurs and then a 2nd on Friday so had to do a draw to give it out at home- my good lady didn't want it so it went to my Mam- I was lucky that was able to relish the build up and get into the game without worrying about having no ticket.
Surrounded by Kerry folk- amazing the sense of entitlement that they possess and the self belief that they will win, after the first half I was optimistic and sent a text home saying that we needed to believe and drive on for the win. It was really intense, lots of hard tackling but low scoring enough. The goal was a killer, and we looked vulnerable at the back. Start of the second half and we went a few up- then it started to fall apart, Kerry got on top at midfield and controlled the game. THat Donaghy fellow is a real..... @#***** he was all over the place pushing and pulling the Dubs and then falling down whenever anyone went near him- not a sportsman- a very good footballer but not a fellow that I'd want on my team.
My clubmate scored an almighty goal- he had missed one earlier because the ball didn't come over to him in time- it was like watching in slow motion, I could see him getting the ball, sidestepping and then slotting it home. I let a primal roar out of me- my heart was racing so high and it was such a relief to get back into the game. Just watching the Sunday game and I actually forgot that we equalised, went ahead and went ahead again. I was quite emotional at the end. I was away in the US in '95 when we last won and was only a little fellow in '83 and can't remember much about the game despite being in attendance. A great day to be a Dub

Not certain will I experience the likes of this weekend again from a sporting sense. Great personal achievement and great achievement by teams that I love.
Up the Dubs