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!

Another first

Not that long ago I had my first ever DNF(did not finish.)  Yesterday was my first DNS(did not start.)

I hadn't really thought about doing the Flora Women's Mini Marathon until a friend contacted me a few days after the closing date to say they were reopening registration briefly and would I think about entering?  I thought "Why the hell not!" and duly entered.

Entry was a reasonable 19 euro and I figured I wouldn't be doing anything else that weekend.  For some reason though I never really got that enthusiastic about it.   Probably a combination of the logistics and the 10k distance.  If I'm doing a 10k I sort of want to turn up, warm up and do the thing as quickly as possible. I could imaging entering a half marathon or marathon for the spectacle, city, scenery etc but not a 10k.  It's just not long enough to be worth the hassle.

After Sundays 5k pb recapped here I had absolutely no notion of running a fast 10k.  I didn't even know anyone who I could have jogged it with so it seemed a bit silly to go to all that hassle so I didn't bother.  As it happens I'm glad I didn't as I went for a very slow 8 miler on the Curragh and my legs were like lead for the first 5 miles.  In fact I stopped three times in the first 2 miles which is really not like me but the outsides of my calves were burning despite doing a good warm up and going very slowly.  Anyway I'm sure it was good training to run on tired legs but it wasn't pleasant at all and I'm glad I was on my own and was able to stop and try to stretch the cramps out without too many people around.  I probably looking a bit nuts to the dog walkers.  My legs finally starting feeling capable of more than a shuffle after mile 6.  Also I saw puppies at this point so all was well in the world.

Today I rested from running and did some strength and stretching.  A good start to June so far!  Tomorrow evening at 7pm is our club 4 mile handicap.  More racing!

New PB and a prize!

So the (patent pending) altitude training must have worked cos I have a shiny new 5k pb of 23:23 as of yesterday. Woohoo!  This was good enough for 2nd lady overall so I won a €20 elverys voucher.  My first ever race winnings!  Might as well give up the day job right now! 
Obviously it was a small race but it's an important one to me as it's in the village both my sets of grandparents are from (yup, I'm properly smalltown and possibly inbred!) 
Added to that I had dropped out of the last race I'd done locally so I felt under scrutiny to finish. Oh and my family sponsor the ladies race.... NBD!  So no pressure then....

I prepared properly by drinking a couple of glasses of wine and a rum and coke the evening before. What do you mean that's not proper pre race nutrition??

I turned up at the start line about 40 minutes before the start which was stupid in such a small race, especially before a 5k where I have time to think about how much it's going to hurt. I chatted to some people I hadn't seen for twenty years or so to pass the time. It's amazing how people who used to seem way older than you are now miraculously almost the same age. How did that happen?

The race started on time just as the sun was coming out. Reason prevailed and I set off at a nice steady pace and let everyone stream ahead of me. Predictably most went off too fast.

The first 2k was okay but then this was mostly downhill. The next 3k sucked really badly but I fell into step with my cousins husband and we kept each other going until the final kilometer. At this point I wanted to puke and walk and all the usual 5k mind games but I could see the finish line so I pushed on ahead.

Crossing the finish line was followed immediately by having a little sit down on the curb. I was not feeling the love for running at this point! By the way I ran this race without a watch so I had no idea of my time at this stage. When my aunt came over and told me I was second lady home I was delighted! I chatted for a while to the 3rd lady and she indicated that her time was under 24 minutes so I knew I was on for a pb.  Also I didn't know there were prizes for 2nd and 3rd too! I was absolutely delighted with 23:23 and of course now I want to do another 5k ASAP to get a 22:xx. Possibly on a weeknight so I don't sabotage myself with booze.

Time to get serious this week about my diet and building my miles back up. My total was 25 miles this week which isn't bad for a comeback week but I want to be back up around 40 by the middle of the month with long runs well into the double digits.

Track! Kind of....

Finally got back to the track tonight.  Yay me!  I hadn't been purposely avoiding it but it's just the way things have fallen.  I was a bit under the weather about two weeks before the Limerick Half Marathon so just did laps that night.  The following week I did 7 miles easy instead as I didn't want to risk injury right before the HM but had itchy feet.  Then came the holidays.  And now no more excuses!

I was almost making an excuse for myself as I ran Monday and Tuesday and could have convinced my lazy self fairly easily to skip it.  I caught myself at it and got out the door quick!

Wasn't particularly feeling it so did a mile warm up and then 3 x 800m....will build back up to 5 x 800m and hopefully get up to regularly doing 10 x 400m when I've some more fitness back.  That's about it for today.

Oh except I was about to leave and got surprised by the coach with my AAI County silver medal! I had almost forgotten about it so it was nice, especially when I'm feeling so unfit right now.  Good motivation!

Back in action

I'm gradually easing myself back to reality after my amazing break.  I managed to drag my bloated and unfit body (plus my inflamed liver) around 8 miles yesterday and 4 today.  Yesterday was only alright and today was predictably a disaster but then it could have been worse and at least it's lovely and warm.  In fact I got sunburned on the roof of my apartment building today despite spending two weeks in Africa and catching only tan.  Something weird about Irish sunshine that I need to be filled in on?

Not back to work until tomorrow which has been lovely so I can spend some time with my kids and get some real life stuff done.  I'm trying to distract myself from the post holiday blues by planning lots of races, meet-ups with friends and activities with the kiddos once school is over.
Time is flying by so I might as well make the most of it and not hang about waiting for life to pass me by.

Despite being down about the long awaited holiday being over I'm so glad I went.  It was a great way for me to get back a bit more of myself after the knocks my confidence took in the last while.  Being around so many people all the time and not hating it was a revelation.

In addition there may or may not have been some eye candy around.  More than one in fact but one in particular that I took great pleasure in having an innocent flirtation with.  It may have been mostly one sided but who cares....I had fun and got to remember how nice it is to really fancy someone.  And someone who had my back at every turn is not the worst person to have a crush on.
I had honestly thought I might be going through an extremely early menopause as I've had no interest in looking at a guy ever since my break-up.  Well I did some looking this holiday!  I honestly think I checked out his arms and the way his hair curls on the back of his neck for a solid four of the five hour drive back to Harare from Chirundu.  Perhaps now my hormones have been reactivated I'll be more interested in going out more now and not come home at 10:30 like recently.

Back to the track tomorrow night which should be interesting.  I think a full week back should see me feeling back to normal.  Here's hoping anyway!

Underwhelming performance

Back in Ireland as of today.  Didn't get to blog at all from Zimbabwe but that was due to lack of access to wifi or indeed any phone signal at all.  The lack of running was due to not having a death wish.  I managed one run and that was on a safari park and by far the safest place to run despite constantly having to make sure nothing was going to jump out of the long grass at me.  

Harare itself was out as there are no footpaths and all the drivers seem to be insane.  We then went to Chirundu on the Zambezi river and the only running you would do there was away from crocs so I gave up and stopped stressing about it.  

Despite these restrictions this was easily the best holiday of my life and I fell in love with Zimbabwe and more specifically the Zambezi river more than I thought possible.  

We arrived in Harare two weeks ago to perfect high 20's temperatures during the day and cooler nights.  It's winter there.  The first full day we had my cousins "kitchen tea" which is basically a hen night but usually starts earlier and is lulls you into a false sense of security as there is some actual tea and scones etc. See below!

However this later degenerates into a full on session except in someones back garden instead of a pub.  

The wedding itself took place at a safari lodge about 1.5 hrs north of Harare.  While there we were treated to a game drive where we saw zebra, impala, lions, warthogs.  The day of the wedding the bride was followed to the fig tree that the ceremony was held at by a family of three elephants.  It was magical.  

We returned to Harare the day after the wedding and spent two more days there preparing for a trip to the river.  At the time I wasn't too enamoured with this prospect as I reckoned there wasn't a chance in hell of getting me out on the water.  The six hour drive up to the border of Zimbabwe with Zambia didn't help my mood but as it turns out I was so enchanted by the place when I arrived that I was out on the boats or messing around on sandbanks from 7:30am to 5pm every day and would have been out longer only the sun sets so early!  It was the most beautiful and peaceful place and I had to be dragged home.  Also I want a boat.  Just a small one!

In flight blogging

I've been quiet on here recently. Part of the reason for that is I was coming up to my holidays and had a lot to do! As I type I'm on my way from Dublin to Harare via Amsterdam.  Exciting and a bit random right? Hope to record some sights and sounds of a country I know very little about right here for posterity.

At two weeks this will be the longest I've ever been away from my kiddos which is making me weepy even thinking about it. A bit embarrassing as I'm surrounded by strangers!  Note to self: middle seats suck.

The trip is for my cousins wedding so I'm not travelling alone and it couldn't be coming at a better time. I'm not as tied down in my home life or professional life just now so I can afford the time to do this.

On the other hand I'm probably financially more constrained than I ever have been but it's amazing what you can do if you just don't go into a shop that's not for groceries for six months and eat a lot of eggs, rice and beans!
Also running as much as I have been recently is virtually free, tends to take up a lot of time when I could be spending moola and makes me far too tired to go anywhere after 9pm.  Winner on all sides!

I have brought no less than 3 sets of gear with me so I have no excuse not to run.

Looks like temps are mid twenties so will probably be slow paces.
Also beer.  That's my other excuse. Additionally the bottle of Patron I bought in duty free.

Basically there is going to be running but I'm not promising anything under a ten minute mile! But pretty pics I hope at the very least.