So where was I??

Oh yes! I was injured, or pre-injured rather.  That rest seemed to work quite well and I got back to running again last week. I was probably well enough to run by Monday but I had an exam that day and was wiped. (Passed.  Phew!  I get to put AVS after my name on LinkedIn. Something about which nobody cares except me!) and then belatedly brought my daughter to Dublin for the night to celebrate finishing both of our sets of exams. Tuesday I was predictably still wrecked after a busy few days so got back to it properly at the track on Wednesday.

It was the hottest night I've been there so far and I'm proud to say I did the whole set session of 4x400 warm-up/10x90seconds/4x400 cool-down.  For most people it's 10x400 but the whistle always goes before I get all the way round so that's me done at about 330m. I could probably get all the way round maybe three times (and then get sick after) but it's not worth it if I want to do the full 10. When I started in November I was getting to maybe 250-280m and could only do 6 so I'll take it. Hopefully with consistency I'll get all the way round for the full set of 10. And on that night I will buy myself a lone beer in celebration!

Thursday was dinner out with the athletics club girls at a local restaurant that does two courses and a glass of wine for 20 euro. Stuck with that and went home hoarse from talking and sore in the belly from laughing so a good night was had. What a great bunch they are!  I've fallen on my feet there. Oh and I snuck in 5 flat miles by the canal after work before I headed out. Uneventful but a bit on the warm side.

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in Achill as the guest of a friend and her grandparents. Again, I must say I have absolutely lucked out with the people I have met recently. Everyone has been so positive and generous with their time and seem to want to be out in the fresh air as much as I do. Very good influences all!

Anyway we squeezed in about as much activity as it's possible to while still getting some sleep.
Saturday started with a 5 mile run on the beach.  I followed this up with a cycle from Achill to Mulranny and back with my number 1 son. This was garnished with a side of 3 hours of hiking from Keem beach up to the Shepherds Hut?/Lookout? and along the sea cliffs to the megalithic tombs. This took 3 hours as we took a boggy route back that required quite a bit of zig-zagging.

Oh and we also cycled to the pub and back (only a mile mind!)

Sunday was more of the same only we had to head back early afternoon so we only managed a run to Keem from Keel and a 1.5 hour cycle around the island. Lazy wagons we were.

And then on Monday I ran 8 easy miles and my legs fell off. The end.
Well almost!

A good week of training

This week has been really good in general and with a view to training.

I had that 8 miler on tired legs on Monday and some solid strength training on Tuesday.  This was followed with the club 4 mile handicap on Wednesday night so with warm-up and cool-down that makes at least 6 miles.  Thursday was 4 recovery miles catching up on a friends holiday and then Friday I did another 8 miles on the Curragh pushing myself on hills and into a strong headwind on the flats.  I rewarded myself with pizza and wine!

Today was a leisurely hike with a friend from Ticknock to Johnnie Foxs pub (I was a JF virgin up to this point) and back.  One pint of the black stuff each was purchased to punctuate our journey and the conversation flowed from the first step to the very last.  Oh and the sun shone unexpectedly.  Can't ask much more than that of a Saturday afternoon!

I'm hoping to get 10 miles in tomorrow morning with some of the running club......hopefully someone slow will show up or it will be lonely out there!  I had better bring my headphones just in case I'm on my own.

If I include the hike that will put my mileage for the week well into the mid 40's which is exactly where I want to be right now.  Feeling very happy with my lot in life right now!

Oh and I may have the beginnings of a team for the Sionnach Relay (same as Ragnar in the USA) which is something I wanted to do since it was first announced but I couldn't find anyone to do it with me.  We have four now so four to go and we are all set.  Yay!

On being right, whether by accident or design.

Oh glory glory glory be! How lovely it is to be right!  Being the grandchild of a wonderful but notoriously contrary matriarch I really don't like being told what to do.  Furthermore being told what to do by a man (even if it's my coach) grinds my gears just a tad.  (Remind me again...Why am I single?)

Being told to rest til Monday didn't sit too well with me to put it mildly.  So what did I do instead?
Well I went for a 3 hour hike in the Wicklow mountains yesterday and then ran 10.5 glorious miles today. Huzzah!

Anyway I feel great now so who cares which of us was right (Me! Me me me! I care!)  
Yes I am 9 years old.

In fairness to the coach I was in such a state Thursday he was absolutely right to recommend rest.  And in my defense, if the hike yesterday had gone badly or I'd felt drained afterwards then I wouldn't have considered going out today.  Despite my underlying misgivings I do absorb information from those who know more than me. Anyone who thinks they always know best and has nothing to learn from others is omitting a lot from the learning process.

The hike was glorious though and I had so much energy when I came back I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom.  After a lovely relaxing evening and a great nights sleep I woke up to blue skies and a perfect view of the slightly snow dusted mountains in the distance.  Who wouldn't be inspired to get outside by that?  And in all fairness I really didn't have anything else to do so off I set giving myself full permission to run 10min/miles and to turn back at any point if I felt unwell.
I shouldn't have worried.  My legs were slightly heavy near the end but apart from that I ran consistant 9-9:30min/miles for the entire thing.  No unscheduled stops (except to fiddle with headphones and my visor) and no stomach issues.  No breathlessness and no nausea.

So hopefully this chapter has come to a close I can work towards getting back to where I was before and then onwards and upwards.

Race Recap - Slane 5k Trail Race

So this is from a couple of weeks ago but it was different to any other 5k I've done so I thought it was worth recording as I might like to do something like this again.  Or remind myself why not to!

This race took place on an open farm with a tourist hostel on it.  It's just outside Slane village in Co. Meath and is overall quite idyllic.....possibly more so if it hasn't rained almost constantly for a month and isn't located (quite famously) in a valley.  More to come on this!

I arrived over an hour before the race start and parked in an already worryingly muddy field considering I was one of the first cars there.  As I got out of the car to go pick up my number someone with a high spec car was already spinning his/her wheels trying to park.....as someone with a practical little runaround this made me a little gleeful and I might have had a little giggle/cackle. I'm not proud of this!  They were fine in the end...don't worry!

I picked up my race number with no problems with a little bag of treats too - a bottle of water, an orange, some race flyers and a 10 euro voucher for wheelworx/runworx....not bad!  There may have been more but I can't remember now. It was quite chilly at this point so went back to my car where I ended up meeting a girl I connected with on the facebook event page who was also running the race alone.  Once we got our numbers sorted we headed up to the start area to people-watch, chat about our other races and generally make the wait for the start less awkward than when alone.  God bless social media!  We did a brief warm up which was worryingly difficult due to the already churned up ground before the race had even started.  This is where I started to be very glad I had signed up for the 5k and not the 10K.

A few minutes before 12 people began to drift up to the start and the route was explained by one of the organisers.  With not much ado the 10k people were off.  Poor things!  About 2-3 minutes later he let us go and we were away.

Off I went downhill about 200 meters into a sharp left through a gate where I became immediately very glad I had tightened my shoelaces firmly before the racc - someone left a shoe behind in the sucking mud!  And I have a feeling this was not the last time this happened during this event.  Around the bend we went and were faced with a truly massive hill. I was more shocked at the fact that I hadn't noticed it's existence at all than surprised that we were expected to climb it.  Luckily I had done my share of massive hills in Achill the week before on a run out and back to Keem beach so I wasn't particularly phased by it but I knew I would have cried if I'd seen it a year or two ago.  Started to pass a lot of people from the 5k at this stage and some of those from the 10k too but felt really strong so kept at it.  The 1k mark wasn't long after the crest of the hill but we didn't get much relief as the next kilometer was marked by being single track trail in areas where it was very hard to overtake as well as very treacherous ground.  This bit seemed to go on forever but going through trees as we were I could see the appeal of racing on this in better conditions.   Trying to find the best line, dodging around branches etc.  As it stood this wasn't really possible as it was all about staying upright!

The next couple of kilometers were mostly just very very wet ground with only very rare steps where you weren't up to your ankles in mud.  There was also a small stream which in normal circumstances could probably be forded quite easily but I opted to go straight in to mid calf as it was too hard to see the stones due to the flooding.  To be honest this was quite a relief just to get the clogged mud off the shoes at that stage!

During the last kilometer there was about 300 meters on road as we headed back towards the start area and this felt like running on clouds, fairydust and Beyonces backside.  Of course I was so happy to be on road I sprinted like a fool and toasted my legs.  I was in for a lovely surprise when we got back on boggy ground for the last run uphill to the finish.  I may not look like Bambi but my legs did a damn good impression!   Luckily I had left enough of a gap between me and the next competitor that she didn't catch me on this bit as I hadn't a hope of speeding up!

Was delighted to find out after that I was the 7th lady in the 5k out of around 70.  Not bad for a slow coach.

Overall a really good first running of this event and I hope they run it again next year.  I was sore up to mid thigh until the following Wednesday so just goes to shoe what different muscles these sort of events use over a road 5k.  Hopefully these sort of things stand me in good stead for when I do my first road 5k or 10k of 2014 over the next few weeks.