A lovely rest day

Tuesday was a day off running and as the weather was gorgeous I decided bring the teens out or they would stay inside and gradually turn grey.
We headed off to Emo Court near Portlaoise which was lovely.  We shared a massive slice of chocolate fudge cake from the impressive selection in the coffee shop and then headed off for over an hour of walking in penance.  It was a gorgeous day to be outside in the sun.
After this we drove the short distance to the Rock of Dunamaise.  This ruined castle on a hill was the perfect spot for our picnic and I was left to read my kindle on the blanket while the teens rambled around climbing in an out of windows and generally using their imagination.  All good stuff and a joy to see.  It was one of those lovely moments when all seems well in the world!

I woke up feeling bleugh today for no particularly good reason.  We did a pyramid session at the track which I completed all of so that's four Wednesdays in a row now.  Don't know if I'm getting any faster though.
I suppose a race will tell that? Unfortunately the track is closed for the next few weeks for resurfacing so we will be doing our session at a local football pitch.  Oh well!

Back in the running groove

This week I certainly felt more like my usual self.  Well physically anyway.

My appetite is back and I'm back to relatively normal running mileage.  I'm not building my mileage up again yet, but maybe next week I'll bring it over thirty all going well.

This weeks workouts

• 4 miles Monday up at the curragh camp.
• A long walk on Tuesday with some core work, squats and yoga.
• 5 miles including 4x800m at the track on Wednesday.  
• Skipped Thursday as I slept badly the night before so was wrecked and went to bed early.
• 7 miles around town and briefly onto the curragh itself after work on Friday.  Gorgeous evening with the sun just beginning to set as I was turning back.  
• Sunday 8 miles pacing a friend at a 10k

Saturday I tried something new and volunteered at Naas Parkrun which was altogether very enjoyable.  I was as per usual extremely anxious beforehand but everyone was very friendly and I had nothing to worry about.  Except fucking up I suppose?  I did have to worry about that but I think it went ok. I suppose I will find out if they refuse to accept any more of my volunteering efforts.

In other news I badgered encouraged my eldest to participate and he finished in a very commendable 27 minutes and more importantly was absolutely delighted with himself.  He is a wonderful character but slow to make friends that he sees outside of school since we moved.  Naturally anything I can do to boost his confidence makes my day.

Today we got up bright and early and picked up a friend and colleague to enter her very first 10k!  Luckily she has a similar aged son to mine so they stayed behind to attempt to communicate via computer games as teenagers do.  Meanwhile myself and T registered, peed, warmed up, ran and cooled down to a total of 8 miles for the day.

So all in all a successful weekend of forcing both myself and eldest slightly out of our comfort zone and into the company of other people.  Not an altogether bad idea for either of us. Personally I do badly need to broaden my horizons here and have a good pool of contacts to ensure I continue to leave the house.  Why do I say that?  Well if I said the black dog of depression hadn't reared it's ugly head recently that would be a lie.  Staying very active and busy certainly helps although sometimes it's as if that's merely masking what is underneath.  Fake it 'til you make it?