Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

The big day is fast approaching, only a week to go. We decided to take it easy on this 6 miler, finishing in 58.54.

Is it possible for a man to have no buoyancy?

A little bit of trumpet blowing justified again… last night was the Dublin Docklands Fun Run, an 8K annual event. It is a pretty flat course which probably contributed to my time of 39:29, that’s a pace of 7:57, an all time best for me! I have to admit that I gave it everything and…

One hates to blow one’s own trumpet but when you’ve got one as shiny mine you’ve got to do it! I am talking of course about a shiny new PB. Today we had the Dublin 5 mile classic and I really wanted to push it as hard as I could. The first mile was fine,…

This morning should have been a taper zone 12 mile training run. However, at the half way mark I looked at my watch and couldn’t believe how fast I had ran 6 miles… slowly it dawned on me that perhaps my rubbish map reading skills had fallen to an all time low and I had…

Tonight we moved up to the intermediate class with a new 7 week course. Still using floats for the back stroke and ending the front crawl with a 1/2 a lung full of water but we’re getting there!

Nice easy run this morning, good pace of 9:06, happy days!!

The first run in the “taper” zone! A little over 5 1/2 miles in 49 mins, that’s a pace of 8:51… a new record!! 6am start, lovely morning, great time to be out!

This weekend was a mixture of over-exertion, over-heating and over-indulgence. It started off with the dreaded 20 Mile training run at 7am on Saturday, running the risk of sounding like a football commentator I have to say it really was a run of 4 quarters! We had split the run into 4 parts with water/gel…

An early morning start and the first mid-week run for a few weeks. I was a little concerned about my knee so I decided to carry my knee saving insoles in my pocket; if I felt a twinge in the knee department I’d stop and slip them in. This happened around mile 4 and by…

Final lesson tonight! As usual much splashing and mouth fulls of water but progress was made. Tonight’s takeaways were: Stretch those arms and legs right out from the finger tips to toe tips. Breathe with your head out of the water. Chicken Royale, fries and a strawberry shake. I’ve signed up for the next level,…

After a weeks rest the weekend 14 mile run had finally come around. I was looking forward to it, I hadn’t ran all week and was starting to feel a little still and unfit. I decided not to run with my insoles; the may solve the knee problem but they do agitate my healing blisters,…

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…