Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

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…

Didn’t make the 10 mile weekend run, in my defense my quads were killing me… I can’t understand it; I thought I had stretched enough after the 4 mile run on Friday morning. Oh well, next on the list is a 3 mile lunchtime run tomorrow from the office.

After a lengthy absence I’m back on track. An early start this morning, up at 6am and out by 6.30. Managed a little over 7 miles in 1.09, a respectable pace. Short 4 mile run tomorrow morning and a long 10 mile run planned for the weekend.

I’m Just back from another trip to the US and I’m sorry to say that I managed only 1 run during my week over there, consequently I’m feeling very unfit… The flight over was pretty uneventful, there were plenty of empty seats and critically the one next to me was empty giving me that all…

I just couldn’t stay awake last night and finally gave in at 9pm. Had a great sleep and woke up at 4am this morning and decided to get up and get out for a run. I had planned on a 5 mile run (as per schedule) but felt good at 2.5 miles so I kept…

…a bum shouted as he caught sight of my bright blue Superman t-shirt while walking through what turned out to be a pretty dodgy part of downtown San Francisco. In that city dodgy can mean all kinds of things; fortunately they’re usually friendly, laid back, a little odd but in a good way. I had…

28th HIVERNALES DU RACING CLUB DE BRUXELLES avec l’aide précieuse de INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BRUSSELS How pathetic is this… it’s February and I have only managed one single, solitary run this year!! Having said that I do have some pretty good excuses; the elbow episode, Christmas (although strictly speaking it happened last year the effects…

Two creamy pints and a lift home!

It wasn’t my idea, but these tinkers had one of their own!