Lovely run this evening

Got home from the ant-farm this evening, v. tired - did i want to go running - Nooooooo; but as i had a spare 45 mins I figured i'd guilt myself into 5 miles.

The weather was perfect for running this evening, no breeze and mild.    I ran down thru Raheny to Dollymount beach.

It odd how sometimes it works like that, the run you have to drag yourself out for is the most enjoyable, like that party you dont want to go too and you end up having a ball.

Anyway something (guilt over that bag of crisps & choccy bar at lunchtime?) made me go out - and it was great.

Dublin Bay looked lovely this evening and I took the run handy (pace 5m50sec per k) to ensure I didnt feel too tired/bet up.    I'd love to have more speed but I'd rather distance and sometimes, with the amount of trouble i've had in not being able to run at times over the last 12 months, I think i'm almost afraid to push myself too hard - in case something goes snap.

Anyway managed just under the 5 miles and Howth looked lovely in the late evening sun

Countdown to marathon

The countdown begins. It is 18 weeks to the Dublin City Marathon. If I follow Hal Higdon the plan starts tomorrow morning. Let's see.

My only worry is that the last time (Kildare in May) I dropped out at fifteen weeks, I think I just felt the plan was too long. I may just up the runs to around 25 miles.a week and then follow a 12 week plan.

None the less let's see if I get out of bed in the morning.

Back to it

Well woke up yesterday morning not wanting to go running. Really not wanting to go out.

But I've had this before and always appreciated the run much more from the other side. So I threw on the gear and hit the road.

Morning was perfect. After way too much rain for the last week it was cloudy but at least it was dry, and practically windless. I ran my usual 5 mile route, down to the coast road and along to the North Bull wooden bridge. It really is beautiful in the morning, you have the full sweep of the bay, and a grand view of any ships going in or out of the port.

First five k were grand, just motoring along. However by 6k I was starting to feel tired. This didn't worry me too much as I was only discussing this with a friend the other day, how on a long run the first 5/6 k can be awful, but once past them you can run for ages. Alas not this day. Shame oh shame I had to walk for a hundred yards at 7k, hr was at 160 which was high for this pace and distance. It came down quick but I still felt really rough.

Got home fairly tired, I'm in worse shape than I thought after the last 2 months of inactivity. Need to man up and start heading out there much more regularly

Starting off in running

Well, this is new.

I (being a luddite as far as the interweb is concerned) only became aware of blogging in the last month or so.

I followed some links to ultra runner blogs & signed up myself purely to follow other blogs (lurking is a new phrase for me, but that is what i was doing until i worked out what it was all about).   I then discovered some very reassuring & uplifting blogs by people with diabetes and I was hooked (my daughter was diagnosed as type 1 diabetic last september and it has changed a lot about how i see things).

I am, to put it mildly, a recreational runner, scratch that, jogger.    Two years ago I was over 16 stone, tending to high blood pressure, very unfit and always exhausted.    Today I'm 2 stone lighter (it was 3 but one snuck back on!!!), healthy blood pressure, quite a bit fitter, and still always exhausted (you cant have everything).

Up till then I had never run in my life, apart from during the odd football or hurling game.  The last serious exercise I did was twenty years ago when I cycled a bit and played hurling (badly).     Then, in August 2009, I met a group of old friends for the first time in years for a few drinks.    Two of the lads had gotten into serious marathon running and looked great.     They bet the other 4 or 5 of us to compete in the 10k Santa Run that December in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.

I dug out an old pair of runners (at least 10 years old and last used for painting the house) and started off a few mornings a week trying to run around the block of houses where I live.    The location was picked for ease of retreat, the time was picked for ease of concealment.   With a lot of wobbling and sounds of desparate gasping I managed about 400 meters that first day before having to walk.

This continued with small increments of distance  over the course of quite a number of weeks and I have to admit I only persevered to avoid the ignominy of being the first to drop out.

But all thru this I remembered the most important thing anyone new to running should remember.   My friend had mentioned that for the first 2 months of starting to run its absolute agony, then your body learns how to breathe and run at the same time and you suddenly have the ability to increase the distances.  Had he not given me this pearl I am sure I would have given up long ago.

I made it to the starting line on a frosty December morning and completed my first 10k - and boy did it feel good.   As it happend I was the only one of the newbies to make it that far and all I wished was that I could get the other fellas to feel how great it is to run that distance.

Since then I've been increasing the distances and have done a few 10 milers and half marathons, but have struggled with injuries all along (who'd have thought trying to do distance running would be difficult after half a lifetime as a couch potato).

I was training for the Kildare marathon this year and got to week 15 of an 18 week training plan before having to stop thru injury, basically my knee gave up on me, but after 3 weeks of no running I had enough residual fitness to do a PB in the half of 1hr59min45secs - yippee, sub 2 hours is sub 2 hours no matter how slim the margin (although come to think of it shouting yippee for 2 hours sums up the measure of my ambitions).

I'm writing this blog as it is now just over 18 weeks to Dublin & I think its time to give it another whack.  

Lets see how this goes.......