Little acorns

You know the old saying about acorns, well, tonight saw a small step for Liam, a giant leap for my running! I headed to the gym, and ran a 3Km session. It was slow, painfully, 15:57. But it was a 3 Km run with no niggles as I ran, no running through pain, no feeling every muscle as I ran.

It's a long road back, I have 20 lbs extra around my belly - and a long way before I can honestly say I will be race fit again. Probably no real chance of anything this side of Xmas of note, but I will work at it, and get back. I love running too much to give up on the project....

Maybe not quite - But it's a start

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day, and I didn't take advantage and run! But I did have a lovely day - walked around Greystones, had lunch al fresco, watched some soccer.... and that continued into Sunday.

But Monday, and a Hash in Santry! Now, hashing can sometimes be far more about the drinking afterwards, and little of the running. But Monday's was a run, and a good one to boot. For those not atune to hashing, it's nothing to do with smoking anything, it's running, following a trail laid by a hare before we all follow on, and it's all good fun, with a few beers at the end to justify the exercise! Well, last night we had a good run of around 75 minutes, and I got a good workout. OK, it's not a structured exercise routine, but it was a good run around Santry and Beaumont, and I felt it was well worth it as a way of kicking off the campaign.

Feeling stiff this morning, and will aim to go the gym tonight to work on a stiff right quad as well as take a nice sauna. I've added a little pic from the weekend, which shows my newly added weight quite well :)

Light at end of tunnel

Some of you will recall when I used to be a runner - Hey! Even I can just about remember the days, the Alzheimer's hasn't kicked in quite yet. This summer has been a write off - story of so many recent summers, but this year wasn't just me being lazy. The muscle in my back has cost me hard, and a virtual ten week layoff has ensued. Now, I can confess to Hashing a little, well, every week to be honest, but those of you who have hashed yourselves will know, that running is not the most important part of a Hash.

Well, 20 lbs extra from when I was in Cincy in May, clothes that barely fit me, and a chubbiness that I detest, here we are in mid-September, and I am ready to start running again. Ironically, I should be running a half-marathon on Saturday, but instead, I plan to start with a gentle, easy 2.4 miles around docklands, and as long as I can put one foot in front of the other, Saturday morning will be the start of something big.

Obviously any plans for this year are shelved, but I aim to be back running, with a proper level of fitness for the BHAA Cross Country Season. Now I hate cross country at the best of times, but I have to make a realistic target, and the road race season will be over by the time I am prepared again - so the BHAA Teaches XC on Oct 18th, over 4 miles, will be my comeback attempt.

I do plan to write garbage on here, to get me going again, and so my posts may actually make some sense :) - Here we go again - Come along for the ride...

Oh My Gawd - What happened to August ?

Where did it go - Did I sleep through it?

Well, I sure as hell didn't run through it at 90 miles an hour - or even ninety miles a month! My serious running has certainly taken a nose dive over recent months, and whilst I continue to Hash, the training in-between hashses has been sporadic at best, and non-existant in any structured plan. I have been struggling to run more than 5 km, and will continue to do so for a while, as my weight is only just hovering under the 200lbs mark. I could use excuses, I did incur an injury or two, but these were relatively minor, and normally I would have run through these, so what is it?

As I say, I am enjoying my Hashing with the Dublin Hash House Harriers, and have taken part in most of the runs since May, culminating in The Hash In The Bog last weekend, and a couple of pics are attached - although, sadly I'm not in any of them, I had the camera :), but you get the idea. Maybe the time has come to accept that my Serious Running Days are over for good, and I should just enjoy the fun that Hashing brings - a new set of friends - Maybe the next few months will tell me the direction to go - Maybe I can lose 10 lbs and start to run better again, and get motivated to run hard - Maybe Oasis will have a hit album!......

Time, as they say, will tell........

I am still alive - No, really, I am

As you can see the operation was a complete success and I'm now able to run again having had a Red Dress Transplanted onto my body.....

OK, maybe not, but he truth is, apart from Hashing I haven't been running for a month, as I pulled a muscle on July 5th, in my lower back, and couldn't run. No whave the all clear, have added 10 lbs in weight, and will be chuggling along slowly as I lose tehweight and get back into shape. Don't you just hate getting old!

Back to the Phoenix Park

Slowly but surely getting back into it. After a busy start to the weekend with a trip up to house in the North to get the builder set as he makes good the water damage from last week, it was home and an early night after watching the first games in the European Championships from Austria/Switzerland. With no Ireland, and even England failing to qualify, it's open as to who to cheer for, and tonight sees a potential good game between Germany & Poland, I have a lot of Polish friends here in Ireland, including my builder, so I'll be wanting them to win tonight, and I have drawn Croatia in the sweep at work, but it will be Spain that I will be following most attentively, they have 4 Liverpool players im their squad, so Viva Espana!

I digress away from running.

This morning I met up with my training partener and friend Kieran in the Phoenix Park and we took a leisurely 5 mile run around the park, catching up on our American trips, as he ran Cleveland Marathon while I was in Cincinnati. He is in better shape than I at present, so I let him run off on me (truth told, there was no way I could keep up!) over the last mile, and I have a lot of work to do to get back into proper shape.

24 weeks to Philadelphia, with Dublin 20 weeks tomorrow - The clock is ticking!

Update and Up and At Them

Thought I'd bring you up to date with what has happened since my run in Cincinnati, and where I'm planning on going next. Well, after the race, it was vacation time in San Diego and Palm Springs, and I only managed a few little runs between pool time, but it kept me ticking over, and the relaxation gave me the chance to re-charge the batteries, and take stock of whether running was still in the plans - maybe it was getting too hard to keep the fitness levels.

Well, I took stock, and decided that as running is in my blood, there is no way I can relinquish the adrenalin that comes from a good run, or a race finish, so it was home, and the Dockland Fun Run over 7.75 Km, starting right outside my front door. I ran it steadily, clocking an unimpressive time of 39:44, but happy enough, and then flew off to Belgium to run the Brussels 20Km Road Race, as part of a team from Irish Revenue, where on a very warm day, and avery tough course, I ran 2:01:26, to finish around 12,000th in the race, but with a further 10,000 behind me! It wasn't the time that I had hoped for, and I have to admit that it is not a race that I would want to repeat, the course is too hilly and the numbers too high for the size of the roads, but I did enjoy my weekend, where our Belgian hosts treated us superbly.

I returned from Belgium with a BIG Blister on my right foot, so I took the whole week off running to allow it to heal - This was down to new shoes, that I thought I had broken-in, obviously not, so they will be discarded as running shoes, and I'll switch to my new Asics Gel Nimbus 10's, over those 9's -

June is here, and I have a plan. I was always intending to run Philadelphia this year, a Thanksgiving Vacation to Pa is a regular occurrance now, visiting family, and Dublin is 4 weeks before Philly. So, Starting on June 9th, I have a 24 week build up to Philly, with Dublin being my last long run before Philly, which I will run as a long training run, and hopefully help a pal reach a goal of his own at the same time. He can reach his goal, and I can contain myself and treat the race as a 2 minute slower than desired pace, training run.

I would point out that my weight has crept up to 196 lbs again, and this WILL be reduced to 175 by the time of the races, and with a summer of running to look forward to, I intend to make this one to remember. Last night I ran with the Dublin Hash House Harriers for a bit of fun too, and will continue to do this, and maintain the fun element of running alongside my serious training.

Swings and Arrows

As you can probably tell, when my running is going well, I post on a daily basis, but when it's not - There are HUGE blanks on the blog and it becomes dormant. The latter has been true in recent months, with the PF causing training to be curtailed and the running going down hill, and not with the wind behind me!

So, what have I been doing in these past weeks? Actually a surprising amount, but SLOW! April was a lean month, with only 39.2 miles run in total, but I was booked on my vacation and I was going to run something while I was away, so May 1st, we flew out to Cincinnati and the Flying Pig Marathon. I have been fortunate enough to make it to Cincy on two previous occassions, and really enjoy the friendliness that this race shows - and my good friend Jenny was there to meet us, and make us at home. On the Friday night I rekindled my affair with Hashing, taking part in the Sin City Hash which was great fun and prepared me well for Saturdays 5K race, part of the Marathon Weekend.

I had decided to run the 5K to see how I was feeling and to see that the foot would put up with racing - it also had to put up with torrential rain on the morning of the race. I took it steadily, and ran a 24:41 time, finishing 135th out of 918 participants, and 5th in my age group - If I had been actually racing this, my time from the St Patricks Day race would have had me 2nd in my age. The positive news was the foot was OK, no reaction.

With a pasta party at Jenny's on the Saturday night, I was prepared for the Race on Sunday, wisely having switched to the Half Marathon, but with no real running worth talking about in the month preceeding, I was uncertain what to expect. Cincy is a tough enough course, with a fair few hills in the 13 miles, so I set about a strategy to walk the worst hills, and jog around the rest - today was a day of testing the foot and not breaking anything :).

I was actually feeling bad after 3 Miles and almost ready to drop out of the race. The bridge you cross back into Ohio at this stage was a tougie, and my lack of training was showing dramatically. 3 Miles! And I used to run Marathons for breakfast! But I persevered, got running again, and stuck to my plan. I ran as much as I could, then when the hills came, I strolled up them, chatting to a fellow Marathon Maniac, also walking, although he had a better excuse as this was his Third Marathon in 8 days :) - We parted at Mile 9, and from there on in, it was easier. The long downhill stretch back into the City saw me picking up the pace, and almost flying along - who needs training when the road is down?

Lets just say I managed to finish the race in one piece, nothing spectacular in the last mile or so, did feel I picked up the pace, and nobody went past me, but it wasn't because of the time that I raised my arms as I crossed the finish line, it was the very fact that I had completed 13 miles with my foot feeling attached and no residual pain - maybe I could get back into running again. For the record, an all time PW of 2 hours 8 minutes and 34 seconds, which is of course my M50 PB, and something to aim at - I was 2721st finished out of 7357, so maybe not quite as bad as I thought, and I lived to fight again, go to California, enjoy a proper vacation around a pool, and start to think about Racing properly again and training hard for Philadelphia in November :)....

Injuries - Injuries - Injuries

Suffice to say the posts have been blank as I have done little running of late. My PF flared up again, and as such I had to withdraw from the Half I had planned and the Connemara Marathon. Not a great start to my M50 career :( -

Hopefully things are improving, and whilst I won't be super fit - I will be in Cincy next month, so maybe something to write about :)

Happy St Patricks Day

Well, it was a day early, and after the hectic last three weeks of studying, exams and school, it was a relief to be back running without thinking about Taxation! And as an added bonus the Dublin St Patrick's Festival Race was back in the City Centre, having been run in the Phoenix Park over 4 miles in recent times. Thankfully the City Council and the Race Organisers were able to recreate a City Centre 5K and the numbers were clearly up as there was a good turn out, with more than one fancy dressed St Patrick on show.

For me, I was guaranteed a new PR as a M50, as this was my first race since my birthday last Wednesday, but I was unsure of how I would run as I have to confess to a few pints on Saturday watching the Rugby - but the least said about that sport the better, at least this week!

The race was off around 10 am, and the weather was pleasant enough for March, with a little chill in the air, but dry and only a light wind. I am never too sure about how to run a 5K, as I am used to starting slowly and getting quicker during a longer race. You can't really do that over 5K, so I was unsure of myself. Although there were a lot of participants, as soon as we turned onto St Stephen's Green the race thinned out and there was no problem with other runners, and I heard the 1K time called at 4:45 - which seemed about right.

I didn't think I was speeding up but the 2K mark came around in 9:05 which meant I had run 4:20 for this Km, and as we ran along the Grand Canal I was feeling the effects of the beer from yesterday a little, so just tried to keep the pace going, checking my breathing and running easily hard - if you know what I mean. Obviously, 5K is fast for me as I train for Connemara and the Pig. so with 3 and 4 coming along in 4:55 and 4:50, I was happy enough and could try and see if I could run harder over the last 1000 metres.

Being in the City, it was a flat course, and I knew that the last 600 or so would be a long straight on the Green followed by a 200m run down Dawson Street to the finish outside the Mansion House, so as soon as we turned onto the straight I tried to pick up the pace and catch a few of my fellow runners. We passed the Shelbourne Hotel and as we did, Superwoman flew past - She must have been on her second lap, or had been sand-bagging, as she left me for dead and even though I was running past a fair few others myself, she probably finished 100m ahead of me! Back to me, and as we turned onto Dawson St, I kept up the accelerated pace, and kicked home to record a 4:20 last Km and a total time of 23:10 - A PR for M50 :) - and an age grade run of 63.67%, which is actually my best over 5K since 2003 - so not a bad day out.

After the race and a welcome cup of tea, managed to catch a few words with Eamonn Coghlan, whose father had been the inaugural Race Director of the St Patrick's Race back in the 70's, and he still looks as fit as in his days as the Chairman of The Boards - A true gent and a great athlete.

Next for me will be a Half Marathon up in Omagh in two weeks - probably different tactics - and definitely no beer the day before :)