Incentives

If ever there was an incentive not to get run down, it has to be coldsores. I seem to get them every time I get run down and after getting sick earlier in the week, they've hit me with a vengeance. I've got them in my nose and down onto my top lip. The only thing I can do now is put up with them and keep them covered in vaseline so they don't dry out and start cracking. It does make blowing my nose next to impossible though.

On a better note, I ran in from Chapelizod this morning to work: http://bit.ly/6iqCHV
It felt good, not too hard, and a nice crisp dry morning.

It's been a while

I haven't been paying attention to this lately. I did the marathon, finished it in 3:11 and haven't done a lot since. I'm doing another marathon in Wales in two weekends time, a trail one this time.

I got back on the bike this morning to come to work after being off it for most of the last two weeks. I was sick earlier in the week as well so this was a test as well as a way of not going back on a bus. I got in with no problems, it was a lovely day for it, sunny, cold and not too windy. The wind will probably be stronger later on but I'll deal with that then.

Oh, also as it's Movember, why not sponsor my mo for charity

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!

Out for a run

I went out for a run yesterday. I didn't bring a watch nor did I know where I was going to go. I just went out and ran. It was a wet day but the rain held off for the most part. I ended up doing 10k in 46 minutes and saw some nice parts of the canal towpath. There were some not so nice bits too. Parts of the canal were totally overgrown as well. Good job we don't get too much hot weather as it would stink along there.

Hoping to get out more and do some longer runs. I might take Ronan's entry to the Dublin marathon too.

Championship round one - complete

Two matches down in the 2009 Junior Championship and we are into the qurter finals.

Our second match was against Maghera last Saturday evening in Breffni Park. We started slowly but were up by 1-5 to 3 points at half time. We pulled away in the second half to win by 2-15 to 0-4.



There was a strange start to the match, with both myself and Martin (the two corner backs) being left unmarked from the throw in. I even thought they had forgotten to put a full team out. In the end, Martin picked up one of the free men and I played as a sweeper in front of the full back. This meant that I was around to pick up free balls and knock downs and start attacks from the back. There was some bad blood a couple of times and Martin was elbowed twice in the mouth without the referee doing anything about it. It threatened to boil over a few times but thankfully nothing went too far.

The draw for the next round was made on the Sunday and we drew Cavan Gaels, to be played in Breffni on Saturday 29th of August.