Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Last class tonight and we’re down to 4 students. After the usual revision we got stuck into plucking and strumming!! Tonight’s ditty’s included Konckin’ On Heaven’s Door (Eric Clapton), Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison), Heart Of Gold (Neil Young) and Redemption Song (Bob Marley). Tonight’s takeaways: Even more strumming techniques A short into to a…

… but I do have a bucket full of really bad excuses for not running recently. My last training run was over a week ago, that’s asking for trouble… it may be early days but from experience every training run counts!!

After a fairly soggy ride to the class I was relieved to find that my guitar case was, as advertised, waterproof. Tonight’s class was very exciting as we were introduced to the tricky art of fingerstyle which is what I’m really interested in, or at least that what I consider to be the most difficult…

Yes, did it again… this weekend run was supposed to be a 12 miler but in my bid to avoid “making up” distance at the end of the run I took the scenic route around the Curragh. It was an enjoyable run, I felt good the whole way around even on the two occasions when…

I never was a big U2 fan and have never had the urge to see them live before but last night’s concert in Croke Park (Dublin) was awesome. I’m not one for drama but it was infinitely better than I thought it might be, the stage alone was incredible… it managed to do what all…

For the first time in ages I have stuck to the plan and ran all three mid-week runs, if I keep this up I may even get close to a 4 hour marathon in October. This morning’s run was early (7am) and I ran a little over 3 miles in 27 minutes, that’s a little…

Yes, the other way around today! The plan was to run 6 but on the treadmill I could only manage 3 before boredom set in and I switched to a bike. You can’t beat the outdoors!!

After a two week gap we’re back in the class room. A few faces missing tonight, I hope they haven’t given up. I was late and missed the first 10 minutes, arriving just as our teacher began to inspect our homework… DAMN!! Tonight we focused on rhythm, and how to keep it flowing… and like…

Working from home today I could nip out at lunchtime for my first midweek run. I had 3 miles on the schedule but didn’t notice my distance until I had travelled 2 miles. I finished having run a little over 4 miles in 36 minutes, a nice brisk pace.

An odd thing happened this morning… every time I woke I thought it was a little earlier than before, as if time was going backwards, and the really weird thing was that all the evidence supported that logic…radio, clock, etc. It was so convincing!!! And yes… I woke up late…

I had 11 miles on my schedule for today and as today’s race was 5 miles I though running 6 miles before the race would be a great idea… add that to the 5 mile race and I’ll have done my 11 miler!! However, that brilliant plan scuppered due to several beers the night before,…

… or specifically German Engineers really do say what they mean! My motorcycle (German as it happens) has a neat feature that counts down remaining kilometers when the petrol leveldrops below one quarter. I had the pleasure of seeing it in action this morning when, on the way into work, petrol was getting pretty low…

With 3 cords, strumming technique and a firm but proper grip on my guitar I was looking forward to the next installment. There were a few comedy moments but that’s to be expected. After strumming and a reminder of our 3 cords we were introduced to the next trio; G, Cadd9 and Dsus4. Once we’d…

Last year if you said to me that I’d be running the Achill half marathon this weekend I’d say you’d be right… and you are, clever thing! This is my third Achill run and every year I run a better time, thankfully this year was no exception. We drove across Ireland to Keel (the race…

I have always wanted to learn the guitar properly! I think it’s easy to learn a few cords and run a plectrum across the strings of a guitar but to really bring that instrument to life takes a whole lot more, much more than I have right now. Tonight, in the hope of bridging that…

…were all there but I just couldn’t see them through that damn fog!! Today’s entertainment was in the inaugural Irish Multi-marathon in Clontarf, Dublin. So called because it is a multi-distance, multi-age and multi-ability event. The route would bring us from the SAILS sculpture along the promenade and across the old wooden bridge onto Bull…

…taking the long way there on the motorcycles. We travelled from Cork to Dungarvin, via Yaughal, for lunch. Later we carried onto Waterford hugging the south coast travelling through Tramore and along lovely twisty country roads, stopping a couple of times to take in some of the stunning Waterford coastline. From Waterford we headed north…

This was never going to be easy and while we were ready for a hard slog we knew we were going to pay dearly for lack of preparation, fully expected it to go horribly wrong at some stage. Unlike last year we didn’t get up outrageously early this time and had breakfast at a respectable…

… and yes, it was a long one but I did manage to get to bed by 3am, I may not have slept much but I was in the best place at that time of night considering what I am about to attempt tomorrow! It took a while to pack, say goodbyes and get going…

Not the best preparation for a marathon but it was jolly good fun… did I say jolly? Anyway, it’s a birthday weekend and we’re staying in the gorgeous seaside village of Carlingford… gorgeous? Hmmm… Last night was great, we had divine dinner in a darling little restaurant followed by drinks in a handsome little pub…