Month: April 2008

Week 4 and we were thrown into the deep end… the theory of treading water is a world away from practice as several mouthfuls of water prove. The ol’ front crawl is coming along… slowly! Last lesson next week, must start looking for another course; a not a beginner but not quite a swimmer course.…

The first thing i did this morning was weight myself… still 84KG. Not bad, could be better but hey ho. The plan was to run 18 miles but due to my rubbish map reading skills I accidentally planned a route of 20.4 miles. I suspected that I had made an error when my legs decided…

A late night made sure it was a struggle to get out of my comfy bed but after many failed attempts I finally crawled out at 6am. It turned out to be a pretty good run; 5 miles in bang on 45 mins., that’s a pace of bang on 09:00, another first! I’m sure the…

Swimming lesson number 3 last night. Like most things; I get the theory, it’s the putting it into practise bit that I sink on. This week was pretty much the same as last week, we’re obviously not getting it right! A 2008 triathlon could be a little adventurous, and quite possibly my last unless I…

I gave the 4 mile run yesterday (Tuesday) a miss, I felt that me knee could do with a rest. This morning I added being geographically challenged to my long list of challenges and didn’t quite make the 9 miles, instead clocking up 8.2 miles; close enough! The good news is that we ran the…

Sunday afternoon is not the best time for the longest run of the week and we proved that fact this afternoon as we dragged ourselves around the 12 mile route; it was a killer, a drag, a shoot me now kinda run but we still managed to run the full 12 miles. Not only did…

Another early start, I’m getting used to these! 5 miles later we were surprising relaxed when rounding the last corner, finishing in a mere 46 minutes. It looks like this training is starting to pay off! Looking forward to the 12 mile run this weekend, it should be a walk in the park… oh, let’s…

Just back from swimming lesson number 2 and I finally managed to breathe with my head out of the water. Towards the end of the lesson I managed to get 1 relatively calm breath in followed a few seconds later by a familiar panicked breath which, combined with a very impressive front crawl, got me…

Another early start and 8 miles without any sign of injury, looks like the shoe advice worked!

Up and out early! I’m back in my old Asics and they feel pretty good. No knee trouble until the last 100m when I felt a twinge followed by a sharp pain and had to stop, but I’m putting it down to agitation and swelling from the long run on Sunday. 8 miles tomorrow morning,…

After expert self-diagnosis I decided to give the experts a go, it turns out that the problem is not with my IT band after all! My right foot it the root of the problem, specifically the arch or lack of it… After much prodding, poking, twisting and pulling my Physio deduced that the arch support…

After resting all week to give my IT band a chance to heal I joined Joe for our long weekend run; 16 miles was on the list this week. After our 15 mile run last week, this week’s 16 miles should be a walk in the park! That’s what you might call tempting fate! It…

It’s been on my to-do list for many years, and I’m finally taking swimming lessons starting tonight. I really didn’t know what to expect, I hadn’t been in a pool for many, many years apart from sea survival courses but they don’t count (you’re wearing a life jacket). When I got out to the pool…

…is not one of the more obscure groups in my music collection but, according to my mate Marie, the cause of my recent knee injury. It’s a band that runs from the hip to the knee and it’s a common injury for professional runners, and I can testify that quite a few rubbish runners get…

Here’s another handy hint but it only applies to bikers in Ireland: If you’ve got a radio built into your motorcycle helmet (which I do) which is not easily controllable with your gloves on (which mine isn’t) and your radio station of choice is RTE Radio 1 (which mine is) and you tend to set…

Morning broke and, while my knee was not 100%, in my wisdom I decided that I should run the GIR this afternoon. I went through my usual pre-race routine; a monster bowl of porridge, a couple of bananas, lots of water, a frantic search for the car keys (I can never find them when I…

This was the first of many long runs myself and my mate Joe are planning in preparation for the Cork marathon; 15 miles in a little over 2 hours 34mins. A really good time for that distance and our pace was pretty constant throughout. I felt pretty good for the entire run but half way…

Another pre-lunch run from the office, a little over 4 miles in a little under 39. It felt like an easier run compared to Tuesday’s run, looks like it’s coming together… Feeling good!!

I’m sticking to the program… 7 miles in 1:07, pretty good pace and felt really good afterwards. 4 miles tomorrow.

Just back from a pre-lunchtime run with my mate Joe: 3.59 miles in 33 mins; a respectable pace. One of the obvious downsides of running when you’re hungry is how much hungrier you are after the run… I could have eaten a horse and considering I work in Clondalkin it could have been a sticky…