Short bursts

Since yesterday, I've done two runs. Yesterday evening I did an 8km run from the house around towards HP and back. I managed that in just under 30 minutes and I was pretty happy with that. I only decided part way through to push it harder and managed to keep up a good pace.

Then this morning I ran in from Chapelizod to work. Just took it nice and easy, no rush on me to get in :) Feeling good now after both of them and looking forward to Monday.

Dublin Marathon

It's coming up on Monday, only 4 days away now and I am in a dilemma. Do I go out and race it properly, following the red balloons and try to get near to 3 hours? Or do I cycle in, run the race as I feel on the day and then cycle back home again?

If I want to race it, it'll be in Ronan's name as I'm entered as him. He entered and then wussed out of racing so I said I'd take his slot. I didn't go and change the name on the entry or anything, so technically I am doing a bad thing. I also haven't trained particularly much for this, I have done one long run of 20 kilometres going home from work and a few 10-12 kilometre runs. I feel I have a good race in me, but will it be blighted by having it attributed to Ronan?

On the other hand, I could use it as a small taster for Ironman distance racing. Albeit without the uber long bike ride before hand, which is kind of the essence of it all. That would take the pressure of trying to race it off me, but is a type of wussing out too.

The weather isn't helping either, wind and rain for the last few days doesn't entice me to go out and try and race fast. Nor to cycle :)

I'm going to go for a jog this evening and see how I feel and I will probably delay the decision until Sunday evening.

A long time away

I've neglected this here blog for a while, so it's about time I put down what I have been doing recently.

Football.
We were knocked out of the championship by Cavan Gaels who were then beaten in the semi finals by Butlersbridge who went on to win it. We played Butlersbridge a week after the championship final and to my disappointment/embarassment and lots of other emotions I was sent off with a straight red card for lashing out and kicknig someone after getting rid of the ball. We were a point down at the time and ended up losing the match badly in the end. On the plus side, we are still in with a shout of getting to the semi final playoffs of the league. We have one match left this weekend against Ballymachugh and the winner of that match gets fourth place.

Training.
I've started doing some long runs to prepare me for the Dublin City Marathon on October 26th. Last night I ran home from work. A 20km run in 1 hour and 27 minutes. I felt pretty good after it, but I think I need to do it a few more times before Monday week. I ran in from Ballyfermot this morning too to loosen out my legs after last night. 5km in 21 minutes. I thought I was going faster, but the stopwatch doesn't lie.
I entered an off road marathon in Gower in Wales too. Pauline talked me into it and then told me she was doing the half! Greg and Waggers have entered the half as well and I hear tell that Ronan has entered the 10K race. Should be a good weekend even if the race will probably take the best part of 5 hours.
I've also done some paddling recently. For the last two weeks I have been on the canal in Ashtown for one evening and I was in the pool last Wednesday as well. It's nice to be able to go out still and pass the ball around outside before it gets too cold. Munster League is starting this weekend but I can't make it as I have a wedding to go to in Waterford.

Life in general.
I moved into a new house with Louise. Just the two of us. It's different from living with other people, a lot quieter and a bit easier on us too as we don't have to rush around and try to orgnise meeting up. I suppose it's about time we did it and we're both enjoying it!
Work has been pretty mental lately with a lot of external problems that were out of our control. We still had to co-ordinate all the vendors and consultants to fix things though. Fingers crossed, it seems to be okay at the moment.

That's a quick overview of the last few weeks. I'll be updating here with info on how my long runs are going for the next few weeks and up to the Gower marathon in December. Stay tuned folks!