On arrival for my regular Tuesday interval training, I noticed this old sign on the way into the the football pitch. 'NO HAWKERS'. 'Why?', thought I, 'would a local football pitch, in a little village on the rugged far flung shores of the west of Ireland, that hosts nothing but small GAA matches between parishes from Galway, whose main language is Irish and not English - why on earth would this place be worried about anyone coming to flog merchandise and why would they refer to said floggers as 'hawkers'!' And then of course, I remembered... that magnificent day in 1986 when a MAJOR EUROPEAN SOCCER TIE came to our village!!! I have recounted the story here before - the city team had qualified for European soccer but no ground met the UEFA size and standard - save this newly built pitch in the middle of Connemara! That sign must have been up on the wall since then (and it looks it too!). I must get in touch with the park committee so that they can take it down before it totally disintegrates and store it for a local museum in years to come!
As for my running - the interval training was tough as usual, but this time it really exposed the idiocy of me not having a watch... My routine was: 2 minutes fast, followed by two easy, five times. I figured that 2mins fast would equal 2.5 laps of the park and that two easy would be just two laps. However, for the final leg I decided to count the seconds in my head as I ran - turns out I should have only been running a lap and a half instead of 2.5 half! As they say, it'll stand to me...
Distance: Intervals (about 30 laps)
Route: The Park
Satisfaction: 5/10
Please buy a watch. Please. Even if it's not a GPS thingy, just buy a stopwatch so you'll have some idea of what you're running.
ReplyDeleteBent Skammelsrud
A watch isn't absolutely necessary. Derek Turnbull - The fastest old man in the world - never wore one. He never wore socks either! And when he set off for a run he didn't always know quite where he was going or how long he was going to be out, but he still finished up with a handful of world records for his age group.
ReplyDeleteBut he was an exception to the rule and quite honestly I'm rather fond of my Garmin 205. I don't wear it all the time, but mainly for measuring new routes and for assessing the times of my speed workouts. Amazon have the cheapest ones. Worth a look.
I respect the posters above but I don't think you should wear a watch - that means you are not running for the fun of it anymore.
ReplyDeleteFitness for life as they say, not to beat the clock.
But when you are training for a marathon to meet a specific time target, and following (and benefiting) from a programme that uses specific times as an integral part, then surely keeping track of time makes sense? When I'm running for the hell of it (ie not training for a marathon), I don't need a watch to tell me that I'm enjoying running along the shoreline, or across a bog. But if I have a target, then it makes sense to use whatever tools there are available to best meet that target. Out of achieving that target comes the ultimate satisfaction.
ReplyDelete(an aggrieved) Skammelsrud
Thanks lads... my compromise will be get a watch but only wear it when I really have to!
ReplyDelete