New Beginnings

Well, I'm back into the swing of things, and life is all about New Beginnings.

From a running perspective, my vacation was a BIG break. I had good intentions when I left Ireland for those shores of Americay, but like all good intentions they fell by the wayside, as the wedding and the partying took over. So it was off to the gym yesterday and a session to loosen out muscles that had been granted two weeks rest, and a run on the treadmill to see how bad things were.

The Dublin Marathon is on October 30th, less than 9 weeks away, and any thoughts I might have had of running anywhere near 3:35 can safely be put away. I will be very happy to get around the course in one piece after the "relaxed" summer I have had. I am somewhat mad at myself for allowing the good work of the early part of the year to go to seed, but I guess that at my advancing years (surely not?), I can allow myself to enjoy running and enjoy living as well, so maybe not all bad.

Anyway, the gym session was far tougher than I had thought. Two weeks off, and 5lbs on, it is going to take a week to get back to a quarter repectability. Well, I finished off the session with a 3K run on the treadmill, not exactly Marathon preparation, and I ran a hard 14:49. When I say hard, I mean it was hard to run that pace (7:57 p/mile). In May I was running sub 7 pace for this kind of distance as a speed session, yesterday it was hard work to maintain the pace period!

Still, hard work can see me back on that road, and hard work will be needed as my other New Beginning is about to take place.

Many months ago I was interviewed for a new job. At present I work in the Public Sector, for a local authority, I guess the American equivalent would be the State. Well, finaly I have been appointed to work for the National Government (The Federal Authorities in US parlance), and I will be leaving my present post at the end of September. It's a mixed feeling. I actually really enjoy the job I am presently doing, and whilst the new job will pay significantly more, my role is not yet clearly defined. Still, the opportunities in my present job to go forward are severely limited, so I cannot afford to hang around and hope.

So New Beginnings with work, and the same with my running. Lets hope they are both successful.

Tagged about my Reading Habits

OK, whilst away I was tagged by Sister Smile with regard to reading. My reading material over the years has varied from trashy novels, through a lot of educational material, and these days I am studying Law and reading far too much -


The book that changed my life: One day in the life of Ivan Denysovich, by Solzhenitsyn. A harrowing account of the Russian Gulags, that I read as a 15 year old, and made me re-think and shape my political ideals.

A book I've read more than once: Lord of the Rings by Tolkein. Well before the films were made (which I still have not seen), I read the three volume tome, and then every few years after, I picked it up and did it again. Think I read it four times overall, although the last time was more than 20 years ago.

A book I'd want with me on a desert island: Some form of Sports Almanac so I could relive all the great sporting moments in my mind as I slowly went mad (assuming I was alone)

A book that made me laugh: Around Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks. Quite simply the funniest thing I have ever read (And I read this more than once as well).

A book that made me cry: Genuinely can't recall one

A book I wish I had written: The Da Vinci Code (Think of the royalties)

A book I wish had never been written: The Da Vinci Code (Then I wouldn't have had to read it).

A book I am currently reading: You can Get Arrested for that, by Rich Smith. Two studenty types head to America to break 25 of the dumbest laws still in existance. Like, did you know it is illegal in Alabama to wear a fake moustache in a church!

A book that I am meaning to read: There are so many. I am a compulsive book buyer. Our book shops always have a Buy 3, pay for 2 offer, so whenever I buy a book I want, I end up buying two more. I last counted that my bookshelves has 60 books that are awaiting my attention! I should open a library....

Just bought three books whilst in the US, that I can add to the "Intend to read" category. Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes, Friday Night Lights by Bissinger, and a historical book "1776" about the obvious.

Back from Vacation

Did you miss me?

Well, I missed you, and have probably lost touch with some people in the last month, what with my PC Crash, and my two week vacation. Well, the PC isn't fixed yet, but I seem to have regained access at work, so for the moment I can get here and let you know what my vacation was like.

I have to confess to little running whilst away. I had planned to do more, but an irish-italian wedding in Rhode Island is not synominous with running, so I have a lot of work to do to get back in shape in time for Dublin in two months time.

The wedding was only part of the trip, and we had a great time, visiting Block Island, fishing in the ocean, out on my friends boat, lunching at the Skippers Dock in Stonington Harbour, and relaxing. Then it was a week in Boston, meeting up with some Cool Runners one night, visiting Fenway Park, doing a Duck Tour, walking the Freedom Trail, and generally having a great time.

We rounded off the trip by driving down from Boston to Newark, and managed to get bumped off our flight on Friday night (for $500 each! ;)) and had a day in New York on Saturday, sadly no time to let anyone know, but a few hours in Macy's and a few beers saw us home safely. Our bags had an even better holiday, as they spent another day in the US before arriving home this morning - At least it saved us having to carry them around the airport when we got home :).

I have loads of pictures from my trip, and when I get the Home Pc fixed, I will post a few shots, and bore you all to death.

Tonight I start running again - Wish me luck .......

Communication Breakdown

Well, here we are, and almost two weeks without a post. I have had the doctor out to the PC and, sadly, the motherboard has gone. Hopefully, it won't cost too much to repair, and my clockwork PC (It's old) will be back running in a relatively short time.

In the meantime, I am heading Stateside for my summer vacation. On Sunday, at some unearthly hour, I will be on a flight to Newark, and two weeks away from PC's, work, and all those silly pressures we put ourselves under in the daily grind. Week one will be in Rhode Island, and a family wedding, that's on Wednesday next, and then, hopefully after visiting Block Island and the beaches of RI, it's up to Boston, or to be precise, Cambridge, as that's where our hotel is, and the delights of my favourite Marathon City.

Running has been less frequent than I would have liked in recent weeks as I have had some health problems, which hopefully will be sorted out when I get home. Although I am probably over-using that in my excuse list. I did managed a nice little run of around 40 minutes last night in the Park with Kieran and Jo, and we had a good chat about Jo's recent Ironman in Germany, and the imminent arrival of Kieran's first child (fingers crossed Barbara). The lack of decent running will mean that the 3:36 goal for Dublin in 11 weeks is unlikely, but I will endeavour to train whilst away, and once home, and my PC is fixed, I'll be assessing where I am in my Train to Boston 08 plan.

For now, I'm away, and to all who read my little missive, I'm missing you, and hopefully normal service will be resumed by early September.

Apologies to everyone

Hi gang - Really sorry about the lack of posts in the past week plus. I have had major PC problems, suffice to say my Home PC has decided to die on me, and my lack of technical knowledge means that I shall be without a Home PC for a few weeks. To add to this I can't access my Blog via work, thanks to firewalls, not hat I would breach the IT Policy ;). So, I have had to resort to borrowing somebodies PC and dive on to let you know what has been happening.

I was hoping to write up a great time I had last week. As a runner, we often take for granted the stewards who make the races we take part in, for granted. Last week at a 5K race organised at work through teh BHAA, I acted as a steward, and really enjoyed the experience. It was a 3 lap race in a local park, and it was important to keep your wits about you as runners were being lapped, and as I was on the park exit gate, where the race went to finish on the track adjoining the park. No mishaps took place, and only one person tried to be stupid and arrogant, it was his park after all, and why should he wait for the runners to pass before he walked through HIS gate - He walked his dog in HIS park, and was a right tosser, but I had the last laugh as a garda was present and heard him giving out, and had a quiet word in his ear, telling him in no uncertain terms what he thought about the eejit :).

Hopefully i can get on here at least once a week, and try and give a weekly update whilst I await either repair or a new PC. Off to Rhode Island and Boston in two weeks for my vacation, and a wedding (not mine!). Must try and take some pics around Boston and recall the Marathon route for future reference. Hopefully I can get some training done on teh Marathon Route, I'm hoping to get to Newton and run the hills, although not after 18 miles :)

So, sorry to be a pain, and hope you keep checking in to see that I am still alive. I can't access other peoples Blogs either from work, so apologies for not commenting on others. The lack of PC access is a pain, but like everything else, I'll be back soon, with plenty of catching up to do. In the meantime, have fun, and keep running.

We're having a Heatwave

These past few days have been very rare, and very enjoyable, in that we have been "suffering" a heatwave here in Ireland. Now, I appreciate that many who read this will be used to hot summers, with temperatures well into the 90's and breaking the 100 mark. But here in Ireland, we have street parties when it hits 60 :)... OK, maybe that's not quite true, and despite what people think we actually get pleasant summers, with average temps in the high 60's most summers.

Well these past few days have seen the 80's hit, and across the Irish Sea, England has seen temps soar into the 90's. It's not so pleasant at work, but the weekend and evenings have been glorious, and I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

It has been good for my running too. I was up at my mums in the North on Saturday and drove over to Castlewellan and the Forest Park for an exceptionally enjoyable early evening run around the Lake. It was only 3.5 miles, but you know that feeling when everything falls into place - The surrounds are briliant, your running is smooth - Well this was one of those runs, everything clicked and it was a joy to be running. Managed 23 miles last week, running 6 days out of 7, and yesterday saw me extend to 5 miles, clcoking 39:21 for the run, and this was after a timed 5K on Monday in 23:18 - all times heading in the right direction.

Took time out last night to head to the cinema. It was Superman Returns! It passed a few hours. It's not a bad film, but neither was it brilliant. Just about worth going to see, with some great special effects, but the script left a little to be desired. Nice little homages to Christopher Reeve in places, and good to see they used the John Williams score - I'd say to anyone thinking about going, yep, go - it won't blow you away, and it's exactly what you'd expect a Superman Film to be, Good V Evil, Good winning out in the end, after the usual pitfalls along the way, and Kryptonite playing it's part as ever - You'd think Lex would learn a trick or two for all his alleged brains :)

Back to running, and will hope to build from the base I'm starting to create. I know others who are training for a fall marathon will be well ahead of me in preparation, with their mileage up over 50 per week. I'll be looking at stabilising around 30, and increasing my long runs, building up over the next ten weeks, peaking at around 40 to 45 mpw - I've never been a High Mileage runner, using quality and rest to help me prepare - I'll keep you posted.

Supplementary Issues

I don't know about you, but I always have a problem knowing quite what to title my scribblings. Obviously when race reporting it's easy, but normal day to day ramblings become harder to title. Anyway, this one is about me running again, and since the race at the weekend, taking some advice about ways to steer clear of the cramping.

I managed a 5K run on Monday, in around 24:14, with no side affects. The right calf was a little tight at first (despite stretching beforehand), but once past 1 km, no problem, and I actually felt a lot better during the run. Tuesday I did 4 miles on the treadmill, again without any problems and at around 7:50 pace, so fingers crossed.

To supplement my running, I have decided to take up some advice, and start taking a few supplements to help. It would be interesting to hear what others think, as I am new to taking pills, I have always tried to steer clear of anything extra, feeling I have a balanced diet etc., but I'm always open to know if what I am doing sounds OK to others who know more about these things than I do. I'm starting easy, and taking 133mg of Magnesium, with 8mg of Vitamin B6, and 99mg of Potasium. The "brand" is Solgar, so if anyone has any comments, please feel free.

Hopefully, a few weeks late, I have attached a picture of the new flooring in the lounge of our house. This was one of my excuses a few weeks back, as we were in upheaval mode. Glad to report it was all worth it, and the house feels great. Next job will be the bathroom, but that can wait till the winter, or maybe next spring.

Had been hoping to try and get a run in with Thomas this week whilst he was up in the smoke, but it looks like we will have to postpone that one until next time, although I might take a trip down to Kerry. For those that read his posts as well, it's a beautiful place to be running. Still, I'll have to concentrate around Dublin for a little while longer - Where's that Open Road?

First Race in Two Months

Seemed to have crammed in a few things this weekend. Friday night saw Dee an dmyself head to the theatre to see Dandelions, a comedy starring Pauline McGlynn and Deirdre O'Kane, along with Keith Duffy - Names that probably mean very little to readers, but if you have ever seen an Irish Comedy called Father Ted, then Pauline played Mrs Doyle the housekeeper, "Will you have a cup of Tea", Deirdre is one of Irelands top stand-up stars, and Keith Duffy used to be in a boy band. The play was very funny, very Irish, and aimed more at a female audience, but worth the trip into town.

Had to run up north on Saturday to see my mother, my normal weekend trip, but after cutting her grass, I headed back home in the afternoon and relaxed in preparation for my Rcae on Sunday.

The race was the first of the Adidas series, building up to the Dublin Marathon in October. There is a series of races, 5, 10 and a Half-Mary, all in the Phoenix Park, and all aimed at marathon preparations. It was a grey, damp, summers day, and after negotiating the traffic to park, I chatted away to a few familiar faces, although despite the wonders of text messaging, could not catch up with my training partner until after the race.

I had no high expectations, having done so little real training since Prague, and having last week cut in half with the stomach bug, so my head was saying that around 40 minutes would be OK. I ran 36 minutes earlier this season for the same distance, but things are nowhere near that level at present. The race started 30 minutes late, and along with around 2,500 others we set off. The course was relatively uneventful, and as I train in the Park I was well used to it, so knew what to expect.

First mile was 8:00 dead, and felt easy, running smoothly. Second mile flew by in 7:45, and I could easily see myself getting under 40. I knew that there was a steady climb over the second half, so feeling comfortable at this pace, the time was going to be grand. Mile 3 crossed an open stretch of the Park, and suprisingly, the wind whipped up here, but this was offset by a down hill before we turned back into the shelter of the trees, and the climb back. Mile 3 was 7:41, and all was going well. My breathing was fine, my legs were fine - oops - Speak too soon!

I don't know what it was, maybe the climb, although it was by no means steep, just a gradual climb, but somewhere in this mile, my right calf decided to tighten up with cramp! I have often suffered from cramp during a marathon, but not at Mile 4, more usually Mile 24, so it was both a worry and suprise. I had to draw to a walk, and try and stretch the cramp out, managing to keep walking, but each step was sore, and I saw the Mile 4 marker and looked down to see that the walking had cost me over a minute, as 9:10 was showing. Around 100 yards past the marker, I felt the cramp ease, as if some magic sponge had whisked the tightness away, so I started to jog again, gradually ctaching those who had passed me as I walked, and had passed the usual comments.

The cramp was cleared and although I knew I shouldn't push too hard, and my time was going to be unheralded, I picked it up, and ran home strongly, pass ing some 20 or so folk in the last 200, fairly sprinting for the line, and "running" 8:02 for the last mile, which given I had walked the first 100 plus, wasn't too bad - Overall time 40:38. Nice thing was I heard my name over the PA praising my sprint finish and gaining a spot prize for my effort - A glass vase!

Kieran was waiting for me at the finish with water in hand. He had run around 38 which he was happy with, given his own problems off late, and we walked back to teh Race HQ and took leave of the great refreshments on hand. I can't be too disappointed with my time, given how little training I have undertaken recently, but I am worried as to the cramping over such a short distance. Now it's time to knuckle down to some serious training and proper preparation for the 26.

OK - I know I said no more excuses....

But this week has been exceptionally busy in one way or another. First, my Big PC has packed in. The one where all my pictures, my data, my records is stored. Actually, to be fair, it's not as bad as that, as it's only the optical mouse that has packed in. Trouble is, I can't work out why! I am hopeless at sorting out problems like this, but my IT Expert, Liam Og, is in Spain for the summer, so I may have to live without it for a while yet.

The good news is I still have the laptop, and access, so all is not lost, and you'll have to put up with me a while yet.

The other down side, which is truth rather than an excuse, is that I was in bed sick at the beginning of the week for three days, a stomach bug hit me. I was laid low, and as a result, my running has also been hit. Only managed to get out yesterday for a couple of miles, still feeling far from 100% , and today I made the gym and had a harder workout, just 2 miles on the treads, but then some rowing, and a session around the leg machines, so not too bad.

All this makes me wonder how I talk myself into things, such as Training for Dublin, thinking about Boston 2008 etc. So what do I go and do today? I sent an entry in for the Connemara Marathon next April. It's the one I ran this year, in the rain, feeling like "yuck", but loving everything about it. So, there you go, I'm already entered for my First Marathon of 2007, another weekend in the West of Ireland - Sometimes I wonder about myself :)

I've been tagged

Well, Thomas has tagged me, so I better play along and answer the questions, if I don't I guess that hordes of wilderbeest or plagues of locusts will be set upon me from Kerry, ok, maybe not, but it's good fun anyway. Here goes.....

4 Jobs I’ve had:

Barman
Bank Official
Computer Security Administrator
Trade Union Official


4 Movies I watch over and over:

The Shawshank Redemption
The Sound of Music (and I'm not joking!)
Life of Brian
Moulin Rouge


4 Places I have lived:

St Albans, England
New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire
Banbridge, Co Down, Northern Ireland
Dublin, Ireland


4 TV shows I watch:

The West Wing
Boston Legal
Judge John Deed
Two and a Half Men


Places I’ve been on Vacation:

California
Malaysia
Poland
Mexico


4 Websites I visit every day:

Cool Running
Runners World UK
Stockport County FC
Kick


4 Favourite Foods:

Mexican
Chicken Anything
Stir-Fry with Rice
Ben & Jerry's Ice-Cream (See I can be honest!)


4 Places I'd rather be right now:

Germany watching the World Cup
Phoenix Park running well
On a beach without a care in the world
At the Lotto HQ collecting my winning millions


4 Favorite Bands/Singers:

Dixie Chicks
Neil Young
Keith Urban
Bryan Adams


Bloggers I'll tag: (but don’t feel obliged!)

Jill
Sarah
Dawn
Sister Smile