Eye of the Tiger Beer.

OOnegative wrote: »

Jeez your lucky TbL doesn’t frequently be about the place anymore B, he’d destroy you with a post like that!!! Don’t make a balls of the vasectomy......

I think I'd prefer my upcoming treatment over his attempt at self-care!

Something that will be entirely unsurprising for the longer term readers here, I completely ignored all medical advice and went for run every day since Thursday when I got the vasectomy :cool:

The procedure itself wasn't much worse than getting some work done at the dentist (and it was actually carried out in a dentist's clinic). I had some extra tenderness on one side which required additional anaesthetic and it's a lot more achey and tender on that side since. I avoided doing anything very strenuous or long as I don't want to interfere with the healing process *too* much, but the runs don't feel like they're doing any damage. Wearing a jock strap is good for running but I found it pretty uncomfortable the rest of the time so haven't bothered wearing it. Overall I constantly feel like somebody gave me a good kick in the balls, which isn't too compatible with running but it's all very manageable. More than happy to answer any questions

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
6th January|9.1 miles|9:31|Met aquinn in Drumcondra on the way home and had a nice chat.
7th January|3.4 miles|9:35|A total disaster, my bag opened and my clothes spilled out but I didn't realise until a km later or so when a cyclist pointed out my open bag. I retraced my steps and eventually found a pair of trousers and underwear, but not my nice t-shirt I then didn't have the time to run home as I was solo parenting for a few days and had to hop on a bus.
8th January|9.1 miles|8:56|A commute
9th January|9 miles|9:09|A pre-vasectomy commute
10th January|3.2 miles|9:18|Very, very easy partial commute
11th January|5.4 miles|7:48|Including Rivervalley parkrun in 21:33 where I nabbed a podium place. Eased my way into it and eventually ended up in second going up the hill the second time around. I considered going all out to chase down first but thought of my balls so just stayed put
12th January|4.8 miles|8:50|Really should have done something longer but I was hungover and feeling sorry for myself today.


Total: 44.4 miles

Next week: Hopefully a boring week of increasing volume and maybe even a parkrun and long run at the weekend. I think Tuesday is too soon to go back to the club. Raheny and Donadea are rapidly approaching :eek:

Nothing spectacular to report. I ran a decent 46 second PB at Raheny, but the week coming up to it was a total mess. On Tuesday I did a decent pilates class in work, followed by my first club session in two months. It was a mix of 600s, 400s and 200s so was an ideal re-introduction to club running, and I really enjoyed it. The day after felt pretty grim, and I waddled home in a commute. I decided to take Thursday off, which wasn't the worst thing to do ahead of a race. On Friday I did another pilates session in work, however this time it was the worst/best pilates session I've ever been part of. I was utterly destroyed afterwards. I had no idea that a pilates session could be so hard. On Saturday, I could only walk down the stairs in significant agony as if I'd run a mountain race the day before. Later on, I had dinner guests over who were my most favorite people in the world but were happy to stay up very late so I ended up anti-socially going to bed about 12.30AM, having woken up at 6.30 with the kids. On Sunday morning I was utterly knackered, and still barely able to walk down the stairs and had a bunch of stuff to do like bring the younger kid to a hurling tournament in Gormanstown and do a shop in the local supermarket. I'm pretty sure that my pal Eliud Kipchoge doesn't spend his 72 hours before a race like this.

Anyway, most of stress (though not my DOMs) went away by the time I got to Raheny, and met up with SR from Rivervalley parkrun and we warmed up together. I'm already understating the sheer volume of social interactions, as this race is full of people I know from parkrun, here, Crusaders, and random others, and I was constantly acknowledging other runners and supporters. We finished our warmup around 2.45, and then I plunged into the crowd with mister_paul before heading further into the forward area. For the first time in Raheny history, I wasn't too far back, and when the race started it wasn't a total shi!show... though it definitely had more ankle banging and shoulder surfing than most races. I was happy to get through the first couple of miles faster than target pace (6:12) and felt comfortable enough. It seemed like I found myself surrounded by a few others from the club, and around the next mile or so I tried to keep up with them, and we gave eachother some encouragement which was nice, though probably way too early. Things started to go downhill (not literally, unfortunately) as we went into the park, and as always the run up the avenue against the field was an existential crisis with no end in sight. Eventually there was there 180 tuen, and I got a bit of encouragement from runners behind me which helped a bit, before slogging up towards the finish line which was completely gross and awful, just like things should be at this stage in a race. I somehow got over the line in 30:44, a good 46 seconds faster than last year. Afterwards I chatted to a bunch of fast folks from Swords, then got changed in the hall and had some chats with Healy, AMK and random club mates, and ended up in a nearby bar with the fast local Swords runner, and ended up briefly chatting to a load of Raheny heads who frequent these parts

Overall, I'm happy to have beaten a soft PB with another soft PB. I've learned a lesson around pilates and racing and will avoid doing anything other than running before target races in the future. After DCM I reckoned a sub-30 was possible at Raheny, but niggles and life got in the way.

Date|Distance|Pace|Notes
20th January|10 miles|9:09|Some sort of commute
21st January|8.8 miles|?|Club session. 4 x (600, 75s, 400, 60s, 200, 90s) in (128, 80, 37, 126, 82, 38, 131, 83, 38, 128, 84, 40).
22nd January|9.1 miles|9:32|A slow commute
25th January|3.8 miles|9:07|A sore run around Swords
26th January|7.2 miles|?|Including Raheny 5 mile in 30:44


Total: 39 miles
Next week: I have no idea. Recover from the pilates and race. Also not tapering for Donadea.

Race report!!!

I didn't train for Donadea, and found it a little bit of a nuisance as I'd prefer to be getting in some consistent training for shorter stuff. That said I had unfinished business with the 50k, having run a poor run here a couple of years ago where I went out at 4 hour pace and then detonated in the last 3 laps or so, finishing in 4:09. For whatever reason, I don't feel the same pressure to perform well at a 50k compared to a marathon, partially because neither attempts were well trained for. All that said I was in not awful shape going into this having run a load of parkruns over Christmas and a PB at Raheny... classic 50k training Mostly I was hoping that some residual fitness from DCM would get me over the line. I decided earlier in the week to target sub-4, but going out a bit faster so that the inevitable slowdown wasn't disastrous. For a well-run marathon this would be a ridiculous strategy, but for a fun ultramarathon with technically a relatively soft target I reckoned I could get away with it

I ran a controlled track session on Tuesday with the Cru, then started to actually taper. I did spend an evening in the pub on Wednesday with some old work colleagues which wouldn't exactly be something I'd do before a target race, another classic taper tactic. I took Friday off entirely, making sure I was eating and drinking loads. I'd rented a car to get to/from Donadea as the kids had their activities all day on Saturday and we're a single car household, and picked up murph_d on the way down to Kildare. I followed my usual hydration routine, plenty of coffee, Lucozade Sport and two vials of disgusting concentrated beetroot juice. We got down to Donadea "pointlessly early" and killed time picking up gear, having chats and expending some nervous energy. Anto's race briefing was a good laugh as always (though no slagging off of triathletes this year), and shortly afterwards we lined up and things started in a low key manner.

The fast bit (22:00, 21:38, 21:50, 21:49, 21:38) 1:48:55

It was hard to judge pace due to the forest annoying GPS, and I only saw one km marker on the course (the 4th). I got into a comfortable steady pace and stuck with it. After things settled down I had a few chats with people around me to see what they were going for, generally the same as me. I wore a jacket for the first lap, flinging it beyond the tables going through the finish area for the first time. There weren't many rubbers generally around me though, and there were lonely stretches for the first 3 laps before we started running into the back of the slower pacing groups etc., and being lapped by Gary O'Hanlon for the first time was a good distraction too. Effort started to go up towards the 4th and 5th laps, so I resolved to get to half-way and then start taking things easier as I knew I was banking plenty of time. I went over half-way in 1:49, so stopped for a minute at the tables to get a Lucozade Sport properly drunk and another gel into my pocket.

The slow bit (23:13, 23:51, 24:36, 25:45, 26:18) 2:03:43

I ended up stopping for a minute on every loop, mostly just drinking some water and walking to the cup recycling bins. It's never fun getting back running after stopping, but the breaks were good mostly as a goal to get around the next lap. I was trying to slowly caress the wall rather than hitting it, and while I knew I was slowing down a good deal things weren't awful. Around the 8th lap was the worst time but I knew once I slogged it out I'd just under an hour for a couple of laps which could probably be done with a run/walk strategy. The next goal was getting over the marathon distance, which I did on my watch around 3:14, but it had lost a good bit of distance so was actually done closer to low 3:12, my third fastest Soon after I caught up with murph_d who I could tell was having a tough day, we ran and chatted for a bit before I pulled off. The last lap somehow felt pretty good even though it was my slowest, and finally finishing felt great. I

So an impressive 15 minute positive split, but I think the race tactics worked. It wasn't the best 50k I could have run and maybe could have paced differently for a sub-3:50 time, but I got the sub-4 box ticked so happy days. It was great meeting and chatting to so many folks from around here and beyond. It's such a fun and unique race with a great atmosphere, long may it last! I'm sure I'll be back... one of these years I'll train for it.

Finish: 3:52:42 - 24th out of 215 finishers, 16 minute PB.

After

I got my plant off Anto and a very needed can of Coke before stumbling over to the car to get changed before heading back to the finish area for some chats and supporting. I was pretty glad that the rental car was an automatic on the way home as things were fairly sore, as they should be. After getting home I dropped the car off, voted, creaked around the shops and finally got to sit down and eat a big curry and had a few beers before falling asleep in one of the kids' beds when I was putting them to sleep. My body isn't as destroyed as it should be, maybe the Vaporflys and soft ground helped there. I have some slightly unusual hip soreness and general DOMS, along with some tender places which evidently got rubbed despite applying some Bodyglide beforehand. I'll probably give running a miss today, but we'll see about tomorrow

AuldManKing wrote: »

I think thats a mad race.

I just love reading Anto's FB posts and seeing the signs on photos from the course. Does anyone train for it (bar GOH)??

Interested what was the reason for you doing it - and why wear the vapourflys??

Why did I do it (again)? Well, the reputation on boards was a big part. If you haven't run Donadea, you're not really a member of Boards Athletic Club

I signed up for it sometime last year in a pique of enthusiasm and FOMO, purchasing an additional hat and hoodie in the process. There's no particular training or progression related reason for doing it - it's kind of like Everest, because it's there. Why wear Vaporflys? Well, I can fooking walk today, that's why! There's a lot to be said for wearing a well cushioned shoe for nearly 4 hours on a soft forest path. I was far more destroyed after DCM and the last time I ran Donadea. Also I did run my 3rd best marathon out of 4 cheaterfly marathons...

Is this thing still on?

My running has been pretty woeful over the last while, as has my presence here as once motivation goes for running, it's hard to enjoy reading about running! I got in a couple of commutes the week after Donadea, but an ongoing ankle problem started wrecking my head and so I tried to stop running to get it to heal. The mix of a niggles (mostly ankle, but also hip and abductor), woeful weather (f$cking wind!!!) and low motivation (no races lined up) all combined to make me pretty unmotivated. I got in a Crusaders session the next week, which was utterly awful. The following week I showed up to Ardgillan parkrun for a bit of tourism and motivation, and put in an ok effort on a laughably tough and windy course to finish in 21:36. I was still suffering from niggles after a run the next day, including some very sore hip pain which was similar to the woes I had back in November and December.

Working from home and the escalation of the corona virus was good motivation to get outside regularly. No real training going on, but getting out for at least 30 minutes a day feels good right now while the world is falling apart (10 day running streak!). Maybe in a few weeks if we can still run outside then I might start throwing in some actual sessions, but for now I'm happy with some mostly pain-free miles and some time killed while we wait for everything to get back to normal.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be a bit more present around these parts now that I'm running again. Most of all, we need to be keeping together as a community in these times, no matter how trivial posting to message boards on the interwebs is.

Since I last wrote here on Paddy's day, things haven't been great (uh, no sh!t)... I mean running-wise, not just the whole you-know-what :pac:

However there are signs of better things happening soon, maybe in the real world but also with the very important thing that is my running. Since my last report I had 2-3 weeks of not-exactly-pain-free running, with all sorts of advanced niggles popping up to annoy me in the world of lockdown. However I seem to have had some sort of recent break through and managed a 40+ mile week last week, with basically no problems. I have a little tenderness in my left foot for some unknown reason, but it's not a problem. My hip, back and related areas are all behaving.

I've also taken on an inexplicable project which has helped with motivation. A week ago I decided to run every road in Swords, and now I'm 7 days in. It's terribly tedious and nostalgic at the same time as I re-encounter various bits of Swords that I experienced at different parts of my life. Running every cul-de-sac in every estate is as exciting as it sounds, and I have a new found respect for orienteers as I have not done an efficient job of route finding, and have simply missed a bunch of roads that I have had to go back the next day and run.

This new adventure of mine is good in that it gets me back running regularly, all easy, which is what I need right now. I have put on a hilarious amount of weight in the last while, so any activity helps, but from an injury/niggle maintenance perspective it's probably the right thing to do too. Once I'm done with this I might even do a session or two, though I think I'm about another 3 weeks from finishing Swords

I've signed up for the boards 5k, though I've a lot more work to do to get under 20!

Not too much to report other than completing my ridiculous goal of running every road in Swords. I had a bit of a "Mission Accomplished" moment by declaring it to be done on social media on Saturday, and then spotting a couple of obvious missed roads near my gaff, so I got them sorted out earlier today.

This is quite a satisfying map:


Overall it was about 210 miles of easy, boring running. It was interesting seeing some changes occur over the course of the lockdown. Loads of Ireland flags are still around, and loads of windows have pictures and messages drawn by kids. The last couple of weekends had a lot more people socialising outside in gardens etc. Earlier on I felt a good bit more anxious when passing people, but it was easy to get into a habit of smiling and waving when jumping onto the grass or road. I did get a few odd looks going into the odd cul-de-sac or passing the same place a few times due to my ineptitude at figuring out routes, but nothing more than that.

I managed to get in 60 miles this week, the furthest in a long time. I did have some minor post-run niggley upper leg pain in the last couple of days, which are echoes of my injury woes from the last few months. Probably a bit too much for now, 50 a week and 6 days a week sounds pretty do-able and hopefully will keep the niggles away. Anyway, I'm looking forward to running to exotic places like Malahide and the airport over the next few days

Sure I may as well start logging again since I'm kind of back running again. Since the last time I posted, an awful lot of not running happened. After the thrilling highs of running every road in Swords, the pandemic just started taking a toll. My wife wasn't well (not from the pandemic itself, though her treatment did get pushed back a lot because of it) which meant I was basically doing everything at home a lot of lockdown, and I just stopped giving a shite about running. I hadn't realised how much of my running was actually enabled by social structure, without commutes, parkrun, going the the club etc. I found it really hard to motivate myself to get out the door.

So that was most of June and July, and then in August we went on a nice family holiday to Center Parcs. On my first go down the outdoors Wild Water Rapids ride, I kind of came to a stop just before one of the dips. So I whooshed my body up to let the water get me unstuck, but my left leg was kind of planted and as my body moved forward, my leg did not. I think I heard a noise and some darting pain from my knee, and spent the rest of the ride wondering had I just seriously injured myself which is a surreal way to do a water ride. It was a little sore, so I just kept hanging out in the pool and went down the ride one or two times more. Immediately after the pool we were doing some outside dining and I decided to get up and go to the toilet... my knee said no. It was clear that something was seriously wrong. So I hobbled around Center Parcs for a few more days, booking myself into the SSC in Santry for when I got back to Dublin. An MRI confirmed that I had a grade 2 tear on my MCL, resulting in crutches and in a knee brace. This was not a positive thing for running. I half-heartedly did the physio assigned exercises and after a while got out of the brace. My physio didn't like me being so eager to get back running, but it felt ok as long as the running was on nice surfaces. The physio work I did did actually work and I got my strength back in my MCL, but it was the guts of a year before it felt like normal again, and even then I don't think I'll play another game of football or run on a mountain for a long time as it still clicks a lot more than my right knee and can get a little achey if I stress the MCL out. Having an actual injury was a great excuse to avoid running, though I did pick up a bike (a classic pandemic move) and half-heartedly did some cycling, mostly up to the Naul where there's an inexplicably good Mexican food van.

Speaking of food, I put on an impressive amount of weight during this time. It turns out that a pandemic is a great excuse to drink a lot at home, and not exercising means the calories from both food and drink just hang around the body, which then makes running a lot harder. February and March this year were similar to May and June last year with zero motivation to go running, and instead do nothing. I think I maxxed out at 99kg, on the morning of DCM 2019 I was 77.7kg.

As more of normal life has resumed, I've found myself doing a lot more running. I've been going into the office a couple of days, initially by bike. Cycling to town is headwrecking, everybody is trying to kill you. It is far less stressful to run, and now I have a lift into town a couple of days a week and so that's two run commutes home. I've done parkrun since it started back up, and have even started doing a session on Tuesdays. It's all a bit tame really, mostly I'm happy about building the habits back up, trying to lose weight and maybe improving over time. My body might start to go wonky the way it did around the end of 2019 and start of 2020 which would rule out any real return to decent running. But in the meantime I'll give it a go. I entered Trim this week so at least I have something resembling a target. Weight is down to 93kg now, loads more to come off and can only make running easier.

This week:

Monday: 9 mile commute at 9:11/mile

Tuesday: 7 x 500m off 60 seconds. Just kind of making up some session. 500m is a lap of a nearby park hence the slightly unusual distance.

Wednesday: Another 9 mile commute at 8:53/mile

Thursday: Nowt

Friday: Just 3 miles at 9:26/mile

Saturday: 9 miles including Malahide parkrun in 22:30. Felt a lot better than the previous week and 19 seconds faster.

Sunday: Long(?) run of 10 miles at 9:14/mile.

Total: 46.9 miles

Next week: Same again. The easy running is probably still a bit fast. I need to get the Sunday runs to 2 hours/HMish. I have a few niggles, I think a day of rest is necessary for the meantime.

Sigh.

Last week I ran decently enough, including a good enough session and a nicely faster parkrun. However I literally self-inflicted an injury that kept me out of running for almost all of this week.

Monday: 9.2 miles @ 8:58 commute

Tuesday: 12 x 400m off 60secs. Strong session, sped up towards the end.

Wednesday: 9.1 miles @ 9:07 commute

Thursday: 4.1 miles @ 9:32 recovery session

Saturday: 8.8 miles including Malahide parkrun @ 21:46. Went out strong enough, got a little disorientated going through half-way thinking I was on for 23 pace, realised a km to go that half-way was way before it used to be due to the course change and ran well towards the end.

I had decided to wear my Vaporflys over, which had been in the shed since the boards 5k time trial back in lockdown. It wasn't long in that I realised they were rubbing excessively against my heels, but just put up with it for the parkrun and run home. I guess they might have warped in the shed, or my feet have grown with my overall bodyweight growth over the last 18 months... either way they manage to scrape a massive amount of skin off the back of my feet, mostly on the left side. I took Sunday off and bandaged them up, and then attempted to run home from work on Monday, which resulted in me getting the bus on Dorset St. due to excessive pain from my left foot. I decided to take a few days off, letting the damn thing heal. It's such a stupid injury, but it was agonising trying to run. I finally got out on Saturday for a couple of miles to and from Rivervalley parkrun where I was volunteering as a steward. On Sunday I strapped myself up with a load of bandages and supported a co-worker doing her first marathon in the Phoenix Park. It was very slow, but also utterly joyous and fun helping her on the last 15k or so. I ended up running a half marathon on the day, the longest I've run in about 15 months. It was great to see loads of other runners doing their marathons and we had a big gang running so it was a lovely day, delightfully finished with a few pints in The Hole in The Wall.

Next week: I'm off work and presumably cavorting around the place so probably not a serious week of running, but after the disaster of last week it'll be great to get back into the swing of things if my feet decide to finally properly heal.

More miles this week, but only one quality run. Crockmac popped over to Swords on Thursday for a session, so we copied what the Cru had done on Tuesday. Nothing else exciting, other than entering Raheny (will I do it and Trim the week after? Maybe not...) and deciding to enter Boston with my 2019 Dublin marathon time. I have a buffer of 14 minutes 33 seconds, so am optimistic... I've never travelled specifically for a race before (DisneyWorld was a convenient excuse), and Boston is obviously a good one to travel for, and will hopefully give me a bit of motivation and structure. It obviously won't be in PB territory, but Boston isn't record eligible anyway :) The idea of actually leaving Ireland on an airplane is also pretty exciting too!

Monday 1st November Commute home, 9.2 miles at 9:25/mile

Tuesday 2nd November A WFH runch, 7.3 miles at 9:10/mile

Wednesday 3rd November Another commute home, 9.2 miles at 9:46/mile

Thursday 4th November 7.6 miles including 8 x 600m off 200m jog. It was great getting to do a session with another human.

Friday 5th November A run after work, 6.6 miles at 9:33/mile

Saturday 6th November The younger kid was playing GAA in Castleknock, so I took him over and jogged around the Phoenix Park, 8.1 miles at 9:06

Sunday 7th November Hungover in the morning and then tight on time later on, so just a short run 5.1 miles at 9:11/mile

Total: 53.3 miles

Next week: Signing up to Boston, a couple of commutes, hopefully a parkrun and we'll see what else happens.

The slow grind continues... nothing too interesting happening in terms of niggles, or paces. We were in Gorey for a couple of nights for a family get together in the Amber Springs Hotel, so obviously I popped over to Gorey parkrun, a bit hungover though not catastrophically so. The parkrun is set in a small enough park that you end up doing 3 laps of an outer and inner loop. A lot of tight turns make it a little stop/starty. Plenty of volunteers and a decent enough turnout. Sean Herir was there too and set a course record, I jumped out of his way onto the grass as he was coming down the home straight and I was plodding around my second lap. I was happy with 22:15 as I wasn't exactly in the form to push myself and the second best parkrun time in my little comeback.

I put my name in the hat for Boston as threatened, getting both my credit card and debit card blocked in the process as they attempted to charge zero to the cards which flagged respective security systems. Got the transaction through anyway. Booked 3 refundable nights in a hotel in Boston (Sat - Mon).

Monday 8th November - 9.1 miles at 9:11/mile. A commute.

Tuesday 9th November - 6.1 miles, including 4 x 800 off 90 secs, 4 x 400 off 60 secs. Dropped the kids to gymnastics and jogged over to the Holywell junior parkrun stadium for this. It was very dark which seemed to make sure that the paces weren't very fast.

Wednesday 10th November - 9.1 miles around 9:20, another commute but one of the most incompetent in the hundreds that I've done. I forgot to pack shorts, so ran home in the trousers I was wearing which fortunately were loose enough though they did get very sweaty. Somehow my Apple Watch got confused and paused a few times too.

Thursday 11th November - a late runch to and from Malahide

Friday 12th November - nada

Saturday 13th November - 8.1 miles including Gorey parkrun in 22:15

Sunday 14th November - 10 miles at 8:53 to/from/around Malahide Castle in the afternoon, lovely day for it. Did a couple of faster miles at the end.

Total: 50 miles. Next week is more of the same.

Yeh, they were talking about it being a "new course" record or something like that. It wasn't slippy, maybe apart from the small bridge. Then again I'm not running fast enough to slip these days :)

Money of course! Closing roads is expensive, I heard that the Fingal race wasn't making money. I think the 10k route in Clondalkin wasn't on as many public roads compared to the Fingal 10k route which was one of the reasons why it went over there. There was meant to be a 4 mile in Swords in 2020 as an additional race in the series which presumably would've had less road closures, but it was never run because of you know what: https://twitter.com/dublinmarathon/status/1232406324807393281

A good week - 60 miles, a good session, volunteered at parkrun and an actual long run. With the kids not doing any indoor activities, my Tuesday evening opened up... so for the first time since February 18th 2020 I was back in Irishtown with the Cru. I messaged mister paul beforehand and so we both got over to the club. It was a decent enough night, a bit breezy but not too cold. Not a huge number of people there, but a few familiar faces to say hello to. Because I was driving over from Swords and I hate being late for things I showed up very early, jogging around the pitch on my own from about 6. It was 45 minutes later when the usual dynamic warmup and strides routine kicked off which I had actually forgotten about. The session itself went well, it was great being back running in a group and running on the track. It definitely helped me push a little harder, and the last 400 was basically all out which was loads of fun. No niggles at all, feeling a little tired but also I think I'm feeling a bit of fitness return, in that easy runs are actually starting to feel easy. Picked up a pair of Kipchoge cheaterboots in the Nike sale (€180!) which will probably be put away for Boston.

22nd November - Dropped the kids to school and did some pre-brekkie miles around Malahide Castle - 8.7 miles at 9:07

23rd November - Cru session as above, 9.5 miles including dynamic warmup and strides. Session was 400, 800, 1200, 1200, 800, 400 off 60, 90, 120, 120, 90. (1:32, 3:07, 4:47, 4:45, 3:07, 1:26)

24th November - Got in a few miles in between meetings, did the Malahide estuary loop - 7.4 miles at 9:24

25th November - More morning miles, this time up to Santry and back. Stupid Apple Watch lost its mind and didn't really record anything at first, only noticed while at the airport. 7.3 miles at 9:00ish

26th November - Feckin' freezing loop around Malahide, 6.7 miles at 9:23

27th November - Volunteered at Rivervalley parkrun on timekeeper duty. Was hungover from watching the Toy Show (watching it requires alcohol). The weather was better than I was expecting, but there was no getting away from the cold while hanging around the finish line. Good chats all 'round, loads of lovely folks in my local parkrun. Ran there and back, 5.5 miles at quite slow.

28th November - Good run beyond the Frank Duffy 2018 course on back roads towards the hills on the way to the Naul. If I ever decide to do a hilly 20 miler that's a really nice route, 20 miles would get me to the top of the Naul mountains. This felt great, probably pushing steady pace but wasn't watch watching and just enjoying the peaceful roads and country scenery. Set out to do 13.1 miles at first, but everything was feeling good so just kept going. 15 miles at 8:35