14 Miles and 17 Pints.

From here to Béal an Daingin (the mouth of the Daingean) with a strong wind in my face and the ever present threat of rainstorms, whilst feeling a little tired on the heels of two big family parties.  It all seemed a little daunting this morning, but one does what one must, and all that carry on.  I took it nice and easy - about a 9.40 minute pace, and plodded onwards to complete the longest run of my furman programme so far.  14 miles, and not one of them kind.  I'm still on my holidays - and will be until September 7th, but we are 'staycationing' this year, which means dividing our time between Connemara and my wife's home county of Louth.  On Friday night D and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on the same day that her father and mother were celebrating their 40th.  So we had a big party.     

Saturday's party was a fancy dress, so no, I don't normally wear flashy red shirts and hats.  And yes, it is hard to say what I'm dressed up as, but it's meant to be a 70s theme.  The lovely D is, however, clearly making less of an effort!

Then on Saturday my brother celebrated his 40th birthday, so we drove back home to Connemara, where we had another big party!  I managed to stay away from all the liquer that was being thrown around at these two occasions, but I did drink two pints in Stabannan on Thursday night with Aidie and Benny.  So the tally for the year is 17 and counting!

Distance:  14 miles

Route:  From home to Béal an Daingin

Satisfaction:  6/10

Holiday Runs in Louth.

I'm up here on my hols in my wife's home County of Louth.  I've managed to keep my furman programme on schedule, with the one difference being that I opted for road running rather than park running for my interval day.  The scenery here is beautiful, and a world of difference from the ruggedness of Connemara - us being on the east coast now, rather than hugging the Atlantic coast of the west.  There are corn fields and maize fields everywhere in this country that is rich in farmland and richer farmers!  For my holiday bits I have visited all the old monastic ruins from the 12th and 13th centuries - this place is littered with them!  Round towers and old churches are scattered here and there and stories of monks who held out against the vikings but crumbled under the reign of Henry VIII.  I've had a good running partner in Benny, who is just starting back to some training but has a serious residue of natural fitness.  D and I are heading back west again this evening for my brother's 40th party.  I'll do my long run in Seanféistín on Sunday, but we'll be back to the Wee County of Louth again on Tuesday to resume the hols. 

13.

There's Conor, often mentioned but first time pictured in this blog of mine.  While I'm going on about doing a marathon in October, this man is running one nearly every week!  By the end of this year he will have clocked up 37 or 38 and aims to get a full 100 done over the next few years!  We set off on a 13 mile run of Seanféistín this morning, on what was a beautiful day - and the first of my holidays.  I was not in good knick.  For starters I only had about 4.5 hours sleep due to the fact that the group of teenage boys who have been staying in our house for the past three weeks (learning Irish), were not home until late, at which time I had to feed them and make sure they eventually got to bed, and then they were to be woken up again just after 6am to catch an early bus.  The first half of the run was fine - I felt a bit weary but ok.  The conversation was good and the weather was warm.  Conor ran two miles further than I did - running a mile past my turning point and still catching me on the way back!  The day got pretty hot as we were entering the last five miles and I began to gasp for water.  Being a man of fair complexion, I can find any bit of heat to be tough.  I struggled on and finished with an average of about 9.30min.  Just ok.

Distance:  13miles

Route:  Seanféistín with Conor

Satisfaction:  5(I was suffering too much to go wild about this one!

It started with a Hooker.

One mile easy this evening and seven miles at tempo pace.  I lashed into the tempo - again no watch but I was well under the 8minute mile mark.  I felt great throughout - the strongest I've been since starting the furman marathon programme.  Why so good today?  Perhaps the change of route - I've heard it said that bringing variation into a running programme can work wonders.  I usually do my midweek tempo around our village but decided to drive to the neighbouring village this evening.  They call this place 'the Islands', it being a series of small isles connected by bridges.  The scenery here is beautiful...I was all set to take some lovely photos for the blog but got so carried away with the run that all I managed to take was this picture of a hooker!  Around these parts of course the term 'hooker' doesn't refer to a street walker or lady of the night, but rather to the traditional sailing craft of Connemara - and this quaint little pub, which was my starting point for the run, is named after said vessel.  I ran the last bit of the run with laces open, running on a narrow bridge, with busy traffic whizzing by.  I had the choice of breaking my momentum by stopping to tie my shoelaces, or else risk tripping on my lace, being hit by a passing car and dumped into the Atlantic ocean.  Of course I risked life and limp to get back to my hooker in record time!!!

Distance:  8miles (1 easy, 7 tempo)

Route:  Back the Islands

Satisfaction:  9/10

NO HAWKERS

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

Twelve, again.

These cows were resting on the six mile patch of Seanféistín Road, where I decided to park up for my twelve miler.  Whenever I run long distances on my own my mind wanders in all sorts of directions.  Today I solved Ireland's education and health issues and I also mapped out a road plan for cultural tourism!  I'm reading a very interesting book at the moment that I picked up for €1 in Charlie Byrne's called 'Human Nature in Politics' (boring you may think but wait...).  It's a very old book, written in 1908, and the edition I have is from 1919. I find it interesting to get the perspective of another age on all kinds of issues and the author of this book, a man called Graham Wallas, covers everything from political morality to human instinct (ok, still boring you say...).  Personally, I think our political system turns good men into mugs and attracts mugs to rule good men (as for women - there are none in Irish politics!).  Anyway - my mind was wandering all over old Wallas' book as I ran my twelve miles today...

And for the second time in two months I traveled without my running shoes... this time around though I was wearing some kind of runner, so instead of turning back I decided to carry on regardless.  Thankfully they didn't seem to do any damage!  Running conditions were grand - a slight swirling wind against me on the first six, but then it gave me a little backing on the way home.  I ran slowly enough (my programme calls for long runs to be 45 secs slower than target marathon time but methinks I was slower still).  Although I do think I can run faster than this particular pace, I am now of the opinion that breaking the four mile mark could be a bit harder than I thought!

My final pic here is of eleven cups in a row, with teabags at the ready.  The house is full of teenage boys at the moment, here to learn Irish in the local summer college, and after mowing the lawn this evening I returned to the house to find that they had meticulously laid out their cups for when they would return to the house after tonight's big disco!

Distance:  12

Pace:  Slow

Satisfaction Rating: 7/10 (enjoyed the run but a little disappointed with pace)

Four Kings

Just posted a new book review, of 'Four Kings' - the tale of boxing legends Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns and Marvellous Marvin Hagler, written by George Kimball.  Review on right column of blog (scroll down).