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!

A busy weekend

I had to get the bus home on Friday evening after work because I am still searching for a part for the van. Got home just in time to turn around and find my football gear to go training. An hour and half of training and then back to say hi to Mum and eat some food. Saturday was spent coding and then in the evening we had a match against Kildallon. We were playing against the wind in the first half and went in at half time 3 points down due to a flukey goal just on half time.
Second half went the way of the first for the first ten minutes and then we somehow managed to start winning everything at midfield. From then on we were almost unstoppable. Only our shooting let us down but we still managed to score 17 points. Final score, Shannon Gaels 17 points, Kildallon 1-9.

The pitch was very slippy and wet on top but at least the rain held off for the match. The wind, however, didn't and played a large part in the goalkeeper's kickouts.

Today I went for a cycle on my Planet-X Stealth. Only the third time I have been out on it, I think. I went up as far as Glenfarne and back and then to the Cladagh Glen and back home. 28km in 57 minutes with a pit stop to fix up my handlebars. Got caught in a heavy rain shower and the wind wanted to be in my face in both directions, but it was enjoyable. I'll have to do another couple of rides before the Wicklow 200 in June though!

Hard football training and a cycle

Football training is in full swing now, we had two more sessions over the weekend. I'm using these as interval and speed sessions as we are doing lots of running to get everyone fitter. We spent 20 minutes running in circles on Friday night on the track around the pitch. I really enjoyed it, but I don't think that was the general concensus from everyone :)

On Saturday I went for a cycle into Enniskillen to see the new boat quay place that is being built by the Round O. It looks like it's the perfect size to fit in polo pitches and with walkways on both sides to let the referee walk along. Now all we need to do is to get the Fermanagh District Council and Waterways Ireland to let us use it for a competition. There is loads of parking, and even a coffee shop as well. Perfect.

The cycle took me around an hour and a half for 46km in nice cold and dry conditions, not much wind to speak of either.

Later on that evening, I had the second training session, this time in Loughan House. Yes, the prison! Training on the astroturf pitch is different to grass and it tends to burn more if you try to slide on it! More running after some short passing games and it was all over. Everyone was glad to get out of the heavy rain and the cold.

I took yesterday off as a rest day and today I plan to get back into the pool for a session.

A bridge too far

It looks like I won't make the full 200 miles this time around, there were just too many weddings and days missed. Since Christmas I have run on St. Stephen's Day, the 27th and the 28th. I have done 29km in those three days. Yesterday I didn't get any done because it was too dark by the time I arrived back to Blacklion from Louise's. Today I just haven't had the energy or the inclination to go out and run in the cold. Instead I have been helping out around the house doing some odd jobs and generally being useful. :)

I have managed to cover 264km and almost all of that was outside so I am happy with that. There is still one more day to go, after today and I will try to get out for at least a 10km jog to finish it all off.

I've given it a good go, and I reckon if it wasn't party season I might have made it, but that's what the challenge was and I didn't manage it. I guess this means that I'll have to do it all over again next December!

The weekend to now

I managed the run on Friday, slightly over 10km and then off to Brasserie 66 for lunch. Nice food, and good craic. Stayed for one drink in the pub and then headed home to Cavan to join Waggers bringing the car back.

Saturday was spent marching in town with Louise and the teachers, 40,000 if you believe the reports. Then it was back home and off for a run, the same as Tuesday with Waggers.

On Sunday, I bought a suit and when I got home, I had a nice little 10km run to Clontarf and back along the coast road.

I didn't get a chance to run yesterday but still got 30km of commuting in on the bike. I used the fixie for a change and got soaked in the rain.

This evening was a longish run, the same as Monday of last week because we got home early from the cubs meeting. Another 30km of commuting in the frost and cold rounded out the day. The run today was quicker and I really felt in the groove for a lot of it. It's nice to just run sometimes :)

16km down, 306 to go

That's right, the December challenge has started. Run 200 miles in December. That's 322km give or take.

Went out for a run with Waggers this evening and it turned out to be a bit longer than I expected. I was looking for a nice 10k to try and ease myself into it, but we ended up doing 16km instead. Spent a while stretching and cooling down after and then ate a lot of food :)

On with the compression tights now and we'll see how tomorrow is.

Long time, lots happened

The last time I updated this I was struggling with blisters and finding it hard to walk. So what did I do? I went and completed a 22 mile hike on the Saturday afterwards! It was the Togher Padraig which is a pilgrimmage from Ballintubber Abbey to Croagh Patrick. It was a great day, the weather held off for most of it and we made it all the way to the top. My feet were in good condition after it but I was quite tired.

The week after we played the Quarter Final of the Championship against Mountnugent. We were beaten by 5 points in the end, but we were never really in the match. It was a huge disappointment as we thought we had put in enough work to get through that stage. It had been six weeks since our first match in the championship but that's no excuse really. I was playing wing back and thought I did alright. My man didn't score as far as I can remember and I set up a few scoring moves during the match.

Since then, I've been at the physio getting acupuncture on my shins. After 5 sessions the swelling has finally gone down enough that i am looking at sets of insoles to try out. I've been doing loads of stretching to try and get my calves and feet loosened out. That seems to be the problem, my legs are too tight. I have to remember to stretch at every opportunity and eventually they will start to loosen out. That will be hard to do, I have tended in the past to stretch, start to see some improvement and then stop, thinking I had done enough. Now is the time to go farther than that and keep the stretching going.

I've also been doing some running, light training runs with Louise, Junior, Waggers and Grainne. I am going to go out and do a long run on Saturday in Achill. Louise is doing the run part of a triathlon over there. I'm going to take some photos and then head off for a nice long slow run.

Looking forward to heading to Amsterdam next month, my aim is probably quite ambitious with a 3 hour marathon. But if you don't make goals, you can't beat them :)

Insoles are great for most things

I got me some insoles last week to try out over the weekend to see if they would alleviate some of the pain I've been having in my legs recently. (Don't you just love it when people self diagnose themselves on the interwebs) The ones I got were supposed to help with flat feet. Now I don't think I suffer from flat feet, but the internet never lies!

I had two matches over the weekend and managed to get through both of them with next to no shin pain. The only problem was that the arch support was a little too high. So now I have blisters under the arches on my feet. Nice open ones now after the second match. I'm some idiot!

Ah well, not much I can do about it now. I have some exercises that I am trying out that everyone seems to recommend for shin splints. Walking on my heels and then standing with my toes on a step and lifting myself up.

So in conclusion, insoles good, blisters on the arch of your foot, bad. If anyone knows of any way to heal blisters quickly, or stop them from happening again, please do leave me a comment.

Oh, and one final thing. The championship quarter final is in two weekends time.

Injured, bah!

I hate being injured. I've been trying to ignore the pain in my legs for the last few weeks, but it's finally gotten the best of me. After resting last week, and then testing it out over the weekend, I have decided that I need to go and see the physio. I have what I think are shin splints, so it might just be a case of resting and icing and resting some more :(

Nice weather makes it easy

To train.

Went for a run yesterday evening, blowing off the plans to go to the gym and for a swim. 56 minutes or so for the run, felt good throughout and pushed for the last half of it after leaving Ronan, Junior and Gráinne to go home.

It rained heavily last night so I thought it was a good thing and I could go to the gym this evening. Woke up this morning and it was still wet. Good stuff :)

Then over the course of the day it got better and better and now it's warm and sunny again! Still went to the gym and then did 500m of a swim afterwards. Felt really tired in the swim and noticed that my technique was waaaaay off, so I left it at the 500m.

Home now, and about to make dinner. Mmmmmm.

Cycley spin

On Monday I got home from work and felt in great humour so I decided to go out for a spin on the tri bike. Started off by climbing Howth hill. The gears weren't very happy and the whole way up was a fight between getting a nice gear to climb in and chunking between about three other gears. It was even the same on the way down! I was tempted to just bail home at that stage and cut my losses. But no, it was too nice an evening to think about giving up.

I went straight on from the bottom of Howth hill out towards Potmarnock and through to Malahide. Along by the estuary and out to the roundabout near the M1. On the stretch to the roundabout I was really tearing along, felt really strong and jus kept pushing. After the turn I kept up the pace all the way back to Malahide. Then it was in through Portmarnock where only one car pulled out in front of me!

Uneventful for the rest of the ride, made it home in 1hr 22mins. My speedo said it was nearly 43km, but I still think it's a little off. I have no idea though how Pauline managed to compete in the Beast of the East tri at the weekend with the gears in such a bad way! Oh and congrats to her for finishing in third place!

Football training

Back to the grind of training :)

Last weekend I had two training sessions on the pitch. The first on Saturday was pretty intense. Lots of sprinting and hard ballwork. Then a couple of games at the end. One posession game and another with full rules, though only 9 a side.

Sunday was a bit more relaxed and skill based. Still plenty of running but not as much sprinting as Saturday.

Today I hope to head off to Three Rock and do some mountain biking with Waggers and Pauline. It looks like it'll be a wet one, the torrential rain we were promised has just started.

Post Race

In the days following the race, I was like a zombie. I had to force myself to eat as I was too tired to enjoy it. I was constantly drinking to replenish myself too. Then when we got back to Dublin, we had a tag rugby match to play! It went well, we won pretty easily, with the three new Ironmen doing enough to learn the rules and get some trys.

It took until about Saturday before I felt that I was recovered enough to go and do anything extra. I had a match on Sunday, just a challenge match so not too important. I made the mistake of not getting enough sleep on the Saturday night and that meant that I was dead again come Sunday evening.

Last night I was back in the gym, time to start bulking up now that the big race is over. I have 7 weeks to work on upper body strength before the first round of the championship. More tag rugby this evening and then there is an aquathlon tomorrow evening on Bull island.

First day in Rapperswil

We travelled to Switzerland today. Left from Dublin airport at 11:30ish and made it here around 4. It was quite nice out so we went for a wander and got some food. Then a walk over to the start area and transition areas. Saw a few people going out for a canoe polo training session, but we didn't stay to watch them.

Came back towards the hotel and got some ice cream before deciding it was time to put the bikes together. After that it was time to test them out. So out on the road (remembering to stay on the right hand side) I had some small problems with gears skipping but sorta got them fixed. We got a little bit lost and then a lightning storm started! So we quickly found the right road and stormed back to the hotel just in time. Time now to relax and have a quiet beer.

Only a few days left now

It's time to take it easy. Ish. I'm not a good one at taking it easy. On Thursday last, I went for an outdoor swim in Malahide with Waggers and with Louise as our lookout in her newly repaired boat.

Friday was drinks out with work and then drive home on Saturday to play a league match. We were beaten by two points by Templeport in a lousy match :(

The B team were beaten today by Cornafean and after that I went on back to Dublin. Just back a short while now and going to head off for a swim shortly. It'll be Gráinne's first proper time in the open water. Luckily Malahide isn't too deep at all.

Open Water Swimming

Remember, when you want to swim in the sea to check the tide times!
Went out this evening with Gráinne and Waggers to go for a quick dip down by Bull island. When we got there, it dawned on us that this was not going to be all that fruitful! The tide was way out. But we got in anyway and after wading out for a few hundred metres with the water no deeper than out knees, we came back again.

Jogged back home with Waggers and got beeped at by a few cars. Is it only Ireland that people can't accept that someone might want to go out and do some exercise?

Swimming and running

Nice little brick session today. I ran from work to Westwood and then went for a quick swim. Just a little 750m at race pace. Then a run from Westwood to Antioch along the coast road.
Overall it took just over an hour and a half.

Countdown

Only a few days to go until the first tri of the year. Wilmslow is on this weekend and while it's only a short one, it should be good. I also get to visit Pauline while I'm there, which will be good.

Things are starting to fall into place too, I have the tri suit, the new runners, a new bike bag and my watch all set up and ready to go. The only thing is that I still have no tri bars. Syntace are sending them out again as UPS sent them back to them for some reason. No official word from UPS on where they are yet either, so I wonder do they even know what they've done with them.

Greg is lending me a set for the weekend, except he still has to pick them up from one of the other guys who has them at the moment. I hope he gets them!

This week we had some great weather so it was a pleasure to get out and do stuff. Spent Monday in Bray at the beach, just chilling out and relaxing. Tuesday was a swim and then cycling home the long way along the Coast Road. Then a race back into town for a dancing lesson before dinner. Today was the long way home and then a 40 minute run with Waggers.

Tomorrow I'll probably take as an easy day, I might head to the pool in the evening just to splash about and do a few lengths. I still want to figure out the tumble turn as it keeps confusing me :)

Good swimming

A good week of swimming. A session on Tuesday and then a better one on Thursday. Feeling good in the water in the run up to Wimslow. I'll have to try and get a session in a 25m pool tomorrow before next weekend, just to get the distance sorted in my head.

I'm still waiting for my tri bars from Syntace, they sent them out a couple of weeks ago, but UPS seem to have lost it. I've started a trace, but I'll have to try and source a new pair for next weekend.

Oh, and another good win on Friday night against Butlersbridge in the League. We won 0-8 to 0-5.

Running

Went for a run this evening, just a nice little one, just 12.3km or so. Took me just over 50 minutes to complete. The weather was nice, a little breezy heading south, but a welcome breeze. I felt really good coming back from Bull Island, I think it was the change in wind direction.

Last night I was in the gym doing session two of the Stronglift 5x5 program. Squat, press, deadlift and chins.

Oh, I also paid the last bit of the accomodation costs for the Ironman, and found out that Louise has finally booked a ticket, so she will be there for it too. Only 8 weeks left now!