MooEnd

Here is a pic at the end of the Mooathon. No Pic of Sin yet.

Moo.

As mentioned on Sinead's and my blogs, we ran the Mooathon.

Slightly (but not at all) related: Here is a story about a lady who went amok dressed as a cow.

Mooooooooooooo.

Sinéad and I ran in the 'Mooathon' from Kilmacrenan to Downings. Sin had planned to do it, I was just an interloper. Happy that I did it, 13.1m (21.08km). Feeling very sore yesterday and today. Long way off a marathon (long way off a half marathon, truth be told...)

Finishing time 2:18. No bad considering that there was a mountain at the beginning.

Bought some fancy webbed shorts to hold my bits in place, good but....next time....more vaseline.

5k run and the english channel?

Had a 5k run yesterday, I feel pretty good. I have a bit of a fricton burn on my thigh though, I may need to start vaselineing my balls.

In other news, I have signed up for a relay team to swim the channel next year (late Aug/September).

Run

Well chaps. I had a run today (1.25km) would like to say that legs are fine (Cathy in the gym says that I'd be feeling shins splints immediately). First run that I have had in some time, I'll be building this up slowly. It'll be a good while before I try any road running.

That is all.

It's no secret

Or at least a badly kept one that I have started training for this. Elliptical Training, Rower, Swimming and Cycling. I am going to start on the hamster wheel soon and try to build up some running distance. I know that I harp on about shin splints, so I am going to take it easy and see how it goes. I'll let you all know how I get on, going to combining running with some weight training, so hopefully it all falls into place.

Going to lodge that money now, so Sinead and I can get it all back and go and treat ourselves to some trinkets and baubles.

Check me out! (mk ii)

OK, so I tried to embed the map of yesterday's training run directly into a post, but MapMyRun's new mapping tool sucks a bit. They've had some vaguely worded feedback to this effect. Let's see if it actually makes a difference.

Anyway, failing that, here's a link to the map, if you can be bothered to follow it. (Just make sure to change the units back to kilometers - another pain in the arse with the new MmR is that it all defaults to miles.) You'll see how wonderfully well my training is coming on. Not sure if I'm going to be ready for the marathon at the end of October, but the half-marathon in September will be a cake walk!

By the way, can I just mention that running up the Captain's Hill in Leixlip is a bastard - but I beat it!

Check me out!

I'm back and taking the lead

I'm in the lead for July on map my run. A whopping 5.36k in 50 minutes. Ok, not so good, but I'm still in the lead. Where are you lot?
July is now official get back to it month.

Food and Where are you all?

OK, the second bit speaks for itself...
No-one's been logging since April! That's the whole month of May without a single run for any of you. For shame! Get back out there, you big girls' blouses!

Back to the first point then, I saw this in the Sunday Times this week: What to eat when you're training for a run, which lead me to this: Go Faster Food.

So, now you can get back out running ladies (and I'm including you in that Gerry), and eat really well while you're about it.
Also, welcome (back?!) to Ann Marie, who tells me that her knee has finally passed fitness and she is back training. Yeay! (Or boo? My spot on the leaderboard may be badly threatened now!)

Another 10k

Finished the largest 10k in the world yesterday. With over 59,000 people starting off took most of an hour, but went round the whole course in 1:18:39. About 5 minutes better than last year, it was a good run, enjoyed it loads. Anyway, checking out the Runners World calculators here, that puts me at an estimated marathon time of 6:01:46. Just 1:46 over the cut off for the bet.

Based on Sineads last half marathon, the calculator tells us her time will be 4:53:59, so I have quite a bit to make up. Even more to catch up to Ms Brooks 3:42:21 from Dublin last year. But never fear, I'll be there and you can eat my dust ladies.

Back to front

hey, we're back! cool! thanks Gerry!
Suz.

Connemarathon - I did it!

How great am I lads?
I did the half marathon in Connemara on Sunday in the not too shabby time of 2 hours 21 minutes. Granted, I was hoping to do slightly better and finish in about 2.10, but a foot cramp at mile 9 put paid to that plan...
Anyway, yeay me!

I'll be back to do it again next year and hopefully improve on my time. Anyone want to join me??? Connemarathon

Are you running right?

Are you running right? (guardian)

If you keep getting injured when you run, you may need to improve your technique. Sam Murphy reveals the seven commonest mistakes runners make.

Do you understand any of this?

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wellbeing/story/0,,2261900,00.html

Suz.

The Fashionable Runner

As promised earlier, a picture of the running gear. Note the form hugging leggings underneath the shorts. Set off with a Monaghan jersey, this is this seasons must have look.

Competition

The shortlist for the Irish Blog Awards has been published:

http://www.richarddelevan.com/2008/02/11/irish-blog-awards-shortlist/

They have a Best Sports and Recreation Blog category.

This is a good opportunity for Con to get his revenge!

I'm not funny, so i'm passing the baton to you humorous individuals.

Suz.

That's never happened to me before...

I went for a run this morning. It was VERRRRRRRY foggy. Visibility was down to 3m in places. Kind of a scary experience to cross the road like that.
Anyway. I knew it was cold, but I didn't realise how cold until I was stretching when I got home... Massive drops of water kept sploshing off my head. Surely, I hadn't been sweating that heavily! No, I hadn't. It was the ice in my hair thawing out. OMG! My hair had frozen while I was running. How mad is that?

Not doing very well at all

I'm sick.
But of course, you all know that already.

I went for a run last Tuesday morning. Had a bit of a sore throat Tuesday night. Went to college on Wednesday morning. By the time my lectures had finished at lunchtime, I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to get home without killing several on the M50. Spent most of Thursday sick in bed. Would have done the same on Friday, except someone had to drive their hung-over husband into work. Would have stayed in bed on Saturday, except someone had to look after the kids while their husband was at the (rubbish) rugby match. Lost my voice on Sunday. Still haven't found it.

I was hoping to go for a short run this morning, but I wasn't feeling great and decided not to push it. Might squeeze in a quickie this evening or tomorrow afternoon. I need to catch up with myself on the 100-miles-in-a-month challenge. I'm almost half-way there (76.79km out of 160.93km) but I've less than 2 weeks left now.

On the plus side, I haven't been for a run in over a week, and you still haven't caught me up Gerry!

Baby it's cold outside

I've joined a running clinic here, it's a great idea. 13 weeks of training from lazy ass bastard to 10k just in time for the Vancover Sun Run. It starts at 8.30 on a Saturday morning though. When there's still snow on the ground. And it's -2 degrees. And Tuesday at 7am it was -3.
Now I have a cold and wont be training this week, but I'm catching up to Sinead and will show her who the sucking sucker is... probably Jim. Cause he loves it.

core group

at the moment there are only 3 of contributing money, training logs and on the blog.

SHiT is too small to have a core group and besides we're all

Together
Everyone
Achieves
More

players, right?

let's huddle...

Suz.

Scared

I got scared in the park, cos it was a bit dark.

Mornings/afternoons for me from now on. Unless accompanied by an adult.

Suz.

Sucking Suckers and Rocking Rockers

First off, well done Suz! Now log it.

Gerry sucks at this running stuff. He and Urs stayed at ours last night and I dragged his sorry ass out this morning for a short 5k run. Granted, it was pretty windy, but he couldn't even haul himself around to the first kilometer.
Pathetic.
Suz, we've got this sewn up. You too Ann Marie and Con, even if you guys don't run a step between now and the '09 marathon, Gerry's out of the running. If you'll pardon the pun.
BTW Amo, hope your knee is doing better...

Did it!

Got out, finally, today, with my new Asics. Venue: Cow's lawn, Listowel. Followed my couch - 5k schedule, ie i couldnt run any faster than it suggested i could. Wasnt pretty, but that's ok too. Pretty is for Gerry!

Tuesday next - 7.30. Blennerville.

Dont forget everyone to pay your dues!!

Suz.

And the beat continues on

Some good running music for Sinead. My current playlist goes like;

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit. A good start.
Metallica - Enter Sandman. This keeps it going. At this stage though, I'm starting to flag and the best pick me up ever has to be
Bill Conti - Theme tune from Rocky.
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army. Keep bopping along now that I have my second wind.
Tina Turner - Simply The Best. Because I am.
Guns 'n' Roses - Paradise City. Why not?
Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal. They ask Annie, are you ok? I don't know about Annie but at this stage I'm knackered.

Well, Suz?

It's now Friday. Which means that yesterday was Thursday. Which was the arrival day for Suzanne's running shoes.
So how did your first run go? Did you get out at all?

BTW, watch out for blisters until you break them in. If anyone has any advice about doing this, please share it. I've got a monster on the arch of my left foot at the moment. Oww-ee!

I've just got a couple of pairs of 1000-mile trainer liners, which are like double layered socks. The inner layer clings to your foot and the outer layer moves with the shoe so there's a 'no blister guarantee'. I'll believe it when I see it...

Opting-in

Here in a grossly edited excerpt from an IM session between Sinead and me this am:

11:08 AM   me: ***CENSORED***
Swim was great. Will try and keep the momentum for tomorrow. If I can do it for a month, I'll treat myself and join the gym, and break up swimming with running. Then I'll join you for your half marathon.

11:10 AM   Sinéad: oh yeay! if you're not ready for the mayo half-marathon in april, there's always the adidas race series (5 miles in July, 10 miles in August) and the Donegal Mooathon (half-marathon) in September...

11:11 AM   me: Yep. On board. Keep encouraging me ***CENSORED*** and I'll be off to the Gym every morning....
Sinéad: no problem... ***CENSORED***

I really, really, need to stop reading silent bob's diaries. But there you go, on the strength of one swim and a vague threat to join the gym, I am in..

The Beat Goes On

My first playlist suggestions are:
The Killers - Mr Brightside. Excellent for pushing the pace up a bit
Deep Purple - Highway Star. Gets me up hills. Even long ones
Scissor Sisters - Filthy/Gorgeous. Good fast pace
Lenny Kravitz - American Woman. Cool things down, or keep an even jog

I had some Bob Dylan and Radiohead on my mp3, but they're far too slow. Some Smashing Pumpkins might work, but not the ones I've got going at the moment! I have a feeling that the music I listened to when stoned might not be very conducive to running, or moving at all. I may have to try out some Hip-Hop or Dance tunes. Gorillaz will be getting a test drive in the next few days.

Has anyone got any other suggestions for good running music? Probably best to do it in seperate posts, rather than comments. Don't forget to put 'playlists' in the labels field so that we can find them all easily!

What the fashionable runner wears

Since Conor is out buying something black and lacy for Sinead to wear while running, I thought I'd add my two cents.
The last few weeks I've been having issues with what I'm wearing (freezing my butt off) and think I have it down now. Getting the temperature right makes it that much easier. So what I'm recommending at the moment for the 2° - 10° C and wind / rain;
Adidas Clima Cool long sleeve top (or any wicking long sleeve) under a t shirt. Then an Adidas light waterproof jacket. These top off a pair of Dunnes finest trackie pants. Add on a cap (Munster Rugby) and a pair of Thinsulate gloves (3 quid from Dunnes), this creates the must have look in fashion this season.
Runners World have a calculator to give you hints on what you might want, you can check it out here. I'll post a pic after my next run.

Helping

I too have started. Started helping my wife that is. Although she is helping me too. Here's how:

Through fucking like stoned bunnies. Forgive me, I am reading Kevin Smith's diary at the moment. Sinéad has agreed to look after the kids and get them ready so I can go swimming in the mornings and try and shift some of that upper body weight before attempting any running. Shin Splints blah-de-blah-de-blah. Taking up Tennis after that. Then, I may start running and join in this madness. That'll put it up to the dopey Monaghan tube.

I, in my way, help Sinéad by buying her stuff. Today I bought her:

Running Gloves

Running Socks

Sports Bras.
-- I had to go to the lingerie section for these, but I looked sufficiently like a lost male for some incredibly hot lady to help me. Man! I have all the shit jobs.

So there. I am really putting myself on the line for this running lark. I am semi-officially-kinda-half-not-really-but-sort-of buying into this.

Progress

Ok, so i havent made any really, except on a logistical front. New Asics arriving thursday; running schedule printed; Guardian get-fit do your exercises adobe file downloaded. Now all i have to do is leave my house. I'm saying Thursday is D-day. All ye veterans can laugh, i dont mind!

The Rule Book

Gerry came up with the following rules for the bet/challenge. I think there is still some room for adjustment here if anyone comes up with another idea. For now though, this is how it will work:

1. The aim of this bet is to complete a marathon, but given 23 months' notice we expect people to run it. No walkers. So we expect a time of under 6 hours.

2. Everyone pays €5 per week to a bank account. This money is used for quarterly prizes of €100 each for 6 quarters and the rest (about €1800-1900) will go to the grand prize winners.

3. Everyone will have to complete a race in April '09 (race to be decided) either a 10k or a half marathon. There are ones in Vancouver and Dublin at this time. The finish time of this race will be used to predict a marathon time.

4. Half the grand prize will be split evenly between anyone who completes the final marathon in under their predicted time + 5%

5. The person with the best percentage improvemet on their predicted time will get another 30% of the grand prize, the next best will get 15% and the next 5%.

6. If only one person gets under predicted time + 5% then they take the lot.

7. If no one completes the martahon in their predicted time +5% then the money stays in the account and we pick a new race in 2010.

8. Quarterly prizes will be given for a different competition each time. An example might be that everyone run 5k as fast as possible on March 1st and again on March 31st. The person with the best percentage improvement gets the prize.

9. We all have to be honest about this and not play to win the cash but play to win the marathon.

Here's an example of how the money and prizes get divided:

5 people over 100 weeks put in €5 a week. This gives us a jackpot of €2500. After 6 quarterly prizes of €100 each, we are left with a grand prize of €1900.

Predicted times are
A: 3 hours 50 (230 minutes + 5% = 241.5 minutes)
B: 5 hours (300 minutes + 5% =315 minutes)
C: 4 hours 30 (270 minutes + 5% = 283.5 minutes)
D: 4 hours (240 minutes + 5% = 252 minutes)
E: 4 hours 45 (285 minutes + 5% = 299.25 minutes)

They finish in
Finish Predicted + 5% Difference Percentage Difference
A 220 241.5 -21.50 -9%
B 320 315 +5.00 +2%
C 280 283.5 -3.50 -1%
D 220 252 -32.00 -13%
E 291 299.25 -8.25 -3%

So B goes home with nothing and the other 4 split half the prize so they all get €237.50

D came in 1st place so gets another €570 (30%)
A came in next so gets another €285 (15%)
E came third so gets an extra €95 (5%)